<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Late Start by Thrythlind</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24992596">Late Start</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thrythlind/pseuds/Thrythlind'>Thrythlind</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Ranma 1/2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Abusive Parent, Ace Azusa, Adaptational Heroism, Asexual Character, Bigoted Villains, Dark is not Evil, Kikoskia cameo, Mental Health Issues, Multi, Nonbinary Character, Noodle Incidents, Original Characters - Freeform, Polyamory, Reasonable Adult Characters, Sacred Dark, Trans Character, gender fluid Ranma, many references, nonbinary Ukyou, trans konatsu</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-30</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 03:21:08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>81,340</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24992596</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thrythlind/pseuds/Thrythlind</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>What if Ranma didn't show up at the Tendou's until years after being cursed? What if Akane was on par with Ranma's power level? What if the main cast of Ranma 1/2 were a bit more mature? </p><p>Side note, I eventually start full on trying to add around 2 references to other fandoms every chapter. There is a twitter thread I'm trying to track the references on now and it's address is in the notes.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Hibiki Ryouga/Shiratori Azusa (Ace), Hibiki Ryouga/Unryuu Akari, Konatsu/Kuonji Ukyou, Kunou Kodachi/Saotome Ranma, Kunou Kodachi/Tendou Akane, Others as revealed, Saotome Ranma/Tendou Akane, Saotome Ranma/Tendou Akane/Kodachi Kunou, Shampoo/Tendou Nabiki, Unryuu Akari/Shiratori Azusa (Ace)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>107</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>86</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Not Afraid to Take You Out</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I've trimmed a lot of the tags so that it is easier to see the tags that are substantive, like the fact that the fic touches here and there on mental health issues and features polyamory.</p><p>I did leave the fact Kikoskia cameos in a chapter because I think I'm the only person who has put Kiko in a fanfic yet and feel like spreading the word on him.</p><p>I'll set up a thread somewhere to track the numerous random references to other fandoms as they grow. And that will continue to happen because it adds a bit of silly and I like working around that rule somewhat.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Exhibition match 4 participants to the ring.”</p><p>The people in the arena started moving toward seats and off the floor to make room for the match being set-up as a young man and young woman stepped up to opposite sides of the mat. They were both dressed in quality karate gi with t-shirts underneath and looked about twenty years old. There was about a four to six centimeter difference in the height between the two, but probably came to about the same weight with the young woman having a wider frame. The man wore his hair mostly short with a small pigtail held by small string while the young woman had long, blue-black hair.</p><p>As each of them moved towards the starting mark they paused as a feeling passed through them. The young woman straightened her posture as the young man slightly shifted his weight to his rear foot. They met eyes and looked around the building and seating, grimacing, before meeting eyes again. The young woman held up two fingers and squeezed them down slightly to which the young man nodded reluctantly. At which point the referee turned around and looked at them hesitating.</p><p>“Are you both ready?” he asked insistently. “Shall we get this on with?”</p><p>“Sorry, had to adjust my gi,” the young man said. “Ready now, thanks for waiting.”</p><p>The young woman nodded and stepped forward to her own mark. “No problem.”</p><p>“Well then,” the referee said. “Saotome Ranma representing Kenpo club and Tendo Akane representing Jiujitsu club. Ready…and begin.”</p><p>A few minutes later, they were walking off the mat basking in the unsatisfactory result of a draw, not even a hint of a sweat broken. As they moved into the hallway, Akane rolled her eyes and shook her head and placed her hands on her hips. “That really felt…bad.”</p><p>“You know I don’t think anybody noticed we were holding back.”</p><p>“Want to go find somewhere to have a real match that won’t cost us a huge collateral bill?”</p><p>“I’m tempted, but I don’t want to fuel my current mood.”</p><p>Akane looked toward him. “That doesn't sound good. Something you could use help with?”</p><p>“Eh, my pop got me kicked out of my apartment today.”</p><p>“Wait, what? Why the hell would your father do that?” She took a drink from her water bottle, mostly for something to do with her hands, and then continued. </p><p>“So, apparently he and a friend of his arranged their kids to marry years ago and I’ve been trying to ignore him.”</p><p>“And he thinks making you homeless is going to convince you?” Akane asked, mouth wide open.</p><p>“Nah, he showed up and tried to drag me out into the street,” Ranma said. “And I got wet. The landlord saw, freaked out and kicked me out.”</p><p>“Over you getting wet?”Akane asked.</p><p>“Oh shit,” Ranma said with a sigh and looked up and down the hallway before taking his own water bottle and pouring it out over his head. Immediately Ranma shrunk by several centimeters, hair changing from black to scarlet as bones and skin re-arranged themselves. The now female Ranma tightened her belt and took off her no-longer fitting gi-jacket.</p><p>Akane, caught in the middle of another drink, she nearly choked and spit water across the floor. “What the hell is it with martial artists and curses?”</p><p>“It’s not every martial artist, I think it’s not more than like…ten percent?”</p><p>“That statistic doesn’t sound right. My sisters have curses and they’re only related to a martial artist.”</p><p>“So, I guess that reaction means you have a curse?”</p><p>Akane blinked and Ranma saw small arcs of electricity pass over her eyes. “A boy in my high school summoned a lightning kami to impress me and…hey, it can be useful, but it makes computers a headache. Anyway, I guess you need to get all your stuff and look for a new place to stay.”</p><p>“Eh, I got a hotel room for a couple of days. I was going to go dancing. There’s a club called Shouganai.”</p><p>“Oh, I know it.”</p><p>“You do?”</p><p>“Yeah, your ex-landlord would probably kick me out too.” Akane looked down the hallway and watched as someone passed between two doors further on down the hallway. “Been to the back rooms?”</p><p>Ranma almost mirrored Akane’s earlier spit-take but choked the water down and then started coughing until she recovered. “Uh…once or twice. Are you?”</p><p>“Hey, if I can’t have a martial contest…” she shrugged then with a smirk. “Seven o’clock, meet you there?”</p><p>“Yeah, that sounds good.” Ranma smiled. “See you then.”</p>
<hr/><p>Ranma walked in through the doorway into the club with its soft-lighting and poppy upbeat music filling the space inside. There wasn’t all that much space, but that wasn’t unusual for Tokyo where space was a premium. She was wearing an artfully loose-fitting suit. Her lips were a bright emerald which was matched by a subtler shade in her eyeshadow, going along with the bit of blush to her cheeks. As she walked in, she scanned the space in the club out to the dancing floor and the bar.</p><p>“You don’t usually go for make-up.” Ranma turned to the voice and saw a pale woman with black hair. She looked young but didn’t feel it and there was an almost tangible aura about her that had Ranma pulse rising just standing there. Her voice was a combination of teasing and warning as she continued. “Either you’re running a scam, and I know you wouldn’t do that in my place, or…you’re meeting someone.”</p><p>“Ah, yeah, meeting someone, Carmilla,” she said. “We’re supposed to meet at seven.” She glanced up toward the clock behind the bar and nodded a bit. “So, I’m a bit early.”</p><p>The door opened behind them, letting the sounds of the street filter in along with a breeze filled with the scents of road-side food stalls and masses of humanity. Turning around, Ranma saw Akane coming in with her long hair up in a stylish bun and wearing a blue dress that showed off her broad and well-toned shoulders. Her make-up was quite a bit more well-done with lightning yellow lip-stick, complementary blush, and electric blue eye-shadow. She glanced around the room and saw Ranma, raising her hand before starting to come over.</p><p>“There she is,” Ranma said to Carmilla as Akane reached them. The pale woman’s face started to express some level of concern.</p><p>“Hey there, I guess we’re both early.”</p><p>“All right,” Carmilla said. “She knows about you?”</p><p>“Well,” Ranma gestured to her suit and tie outfit. “Yeah, she does.”</p><p>“Right, and…Ranma knows about you?”</p><p>Akane raised her hand and rubbed to fingers together producing a crackle of electricity. “Yep.”</p><p>“Good. Now…have fun, and please don’t destroy my club.” The woman patted each of them on the back and moved deeper into the club to talk to other patrons.</p><p>“Come on, half the people in here have done more damage than me!” Ranma called out.</p><p>“It was only one small power outage,” Akane protested simultaneously.</p><p>Carmilla didn’t answer but just raised on hand into a wave as she continued onward. </p><p>“Hey, I thought you’d be here as a guy,” Akane said, “But I like the look.”</p><p>“Nah, if I’m going out, it’s easier to avoid surprise changes as a woman,” Ranma said. “And you’ve leaned into the lightning a bit.”</p><p>“You can almost say I ride it. Yeah, my sister did the make-up, she’s much better at this sort of thing than me. So…” She brushed back a loose strand of hair and tucked it into the rest of the hair as music kicked up. “Listen up, strap in.”</p><p>Ranma took Akane’s outstretched hand and let the taller woman pull her out into the dance floor. As they came close the red-head smirked “Notify your next of kin?”</p><p>“You’re about to take a ride a little on the shocking side.” Akane pressed in close as they both started moving in time to the fast music.</p><p>“Got any Red Bull?” Ranma asked as she wrapped her hands around Akane’s waist and spending the pair of them in another direction.</p><p>“You’re going to need a bucket full.” Akane smirked, lifting Ranma up off the floor.</p><p>“You’re watching me accelerate,” Ranma said as she jumped into the lift and flipped around behind Akane, pressing her back to the other girls.</p><p>“I’ll tear up the interstate,” Akane said as she reached around behind her and twisted Ranma painlessly into a dip. “I’m a certified monster.”</p><p>Ranma slipped free, spinning out to the length of Akane’s arm and then darting out a foot, bringing Akane to fall into her arms. “An absolute trip.”</p><p>Akane recovered from her eyes and returned Ranma’s mischievous smirk, flipping behind the smaller woman and wrapping her arms around her from behind. “Like Otis Redding, you’re hard to handle.”</p><p>“So you better get a grip,” Ranma returned, pushing back into the woman behind her and still swaying to the rhythm. Then breaking free and dancing in a tight circle around Akane showing off her agility and control. “I’m superfast, superfly.”</p><p>Akane reached out to take her hand, moved forward to lean down over her. “Bonafide wise guy. Call the morgue and say goodbye.”</p><p>“Write you will, it’s time to die.”</p><p>“Caffeine,” both said together as they moved into the chorus. </p><p>“I’m caffeine.” Ranma sang.</p><p>“Caffeine!” Came calls from the other people in the audience.</p><p>“I’m caffeine.” Akane added. </p><p>“Caffeine!” Added the chorus.</p><p>“I’m a bad dream.” Both Ranma and Akane said together as they moved in time with each other. “I’m a rad scene. I’m a tad mean. But I’m not afraid to take you out.”</p><p>There was a laugh then, as the two lost time with the song and its lyrics and just continued with the dancing through the rest of the song, before laughing off the dance floor and up to the bar.</p><p>“Well, now that you’ve made this a karaoke bar instead of dance club,” the small woman behind the bar said calmly. “What would you like to drink.”</p><p>Ranma and Akane shared a look and then said together “Caffeine!”</p><p>The bartender sighed and rolled her eyes. “Right, I’ll get to that then.”</p><p>“I like that song,” Ranma said.</p><p>“It’s from an American anime, I heard,” Akane said with a shrug.</p><p>“Huh, maybe I should look that up.”</p><p>“Oh, I’ve forgotten to ask, are you a guy or a girl? I mean…” she gestured awkwardly.</p><p>“I’m more guy-ish right now, but eh I’m a bit fluid.”</p><p>“More guyish?” Akane teased, indicating the make-up.</p><p>“Please, it took me almost a year of being a part time girl to even consider this sort of thing. Guys can wear makeup if they want to.”</p><p>“Right,” the dark-haired girl said as she rose her hand up. “Sorry for that. So, more fluid. Is… that the curse?”</p><p>“Nah, I’ve met other people with this sort of curse who absolutely hate it.” Ranma shrugged. “I got lucky.”</p><p>The bartender came back with two cups and set them in front of the two martial artists. “Well, after your performance, Carmilla instructed me to absolutely under no circumstances give you any sort of caffeine whatsoever. So, enjoy your double shot espressos,” she turned to face Ranma. “Iced, of course. To avoid accidents.”</p><p>“Thanks, Maim,” Ranma said with a smirk.</p><p>The bartender nodded and then turned attention toward other customers. </p><p>“Maybe next dance we chew up a little less scenery?” Akane suggested playfully as she drank her espresso.</p><p>“We can certainly try.” Ranma said. “So, you’re…I guess, bi?”</p><p>“Pan,” Akane said. “You?”</p><p>“I…like who like.” Ranma said with a shrug.</p><p>“Fair.”</p>
<hr/><p>Akane and Ranma were out on the dance floor dancing close together but a little off rhythm from the song as they distracted each other.</p><p>“So…this guy was dating all three of us,” Akane said. “And we only found out because Nabiki wanted to introduce him to her family.”</p><p>“Wait, didn’t he notice your names were the same?”</p><p>Akane scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Apparently not. We were…not impressed.”</p><p>“So how many bones were broken?” Ranma asked.</p><p>“So, my dad says something like ‘I saw this on a movie once’ and tries to switch out the scroll with a newspaper.”</p><p>“Didn’t that movie come with a giant boulder?”</p><p>“Yeah.”</p><p>“So, what happened when he took the scroll?”</p><p>“Giant boulder…and snakes.”</p><p>“Of course.”</p>
<hr/><p>“So, it started out fine, but then I got told I was forgetting things. And demanding more time. And just it was exhausting. I actually believed I’d forgotten a Valentine’s gift until I checked receipts.”</p><p>“Wow she sounds like a first class gaslighter.”</p><p>“They.”</p><p>“What?”</p><p>“They. They were twins pretending to be one person and just trading me off whenever.”</p><p>“What the fuck?”</p><p>“I know, right? I mean tell me I’m dating two people and don’t treat me like an amusement ride or vending machine or something.”</p><p>“I’ll remember that.”</p>
<hr/><p>“She’s actually pretty cool to meet in person, a bit intense, but you know, that’s understandable.”</p><p>“Damn it, I’m so jealous. I was all over China and never met her at any of the venues I fought at.”</p><p>“I mean, she’s a world warrior. She travels the world.”</p><p>“Tell me you got her autograph.”</p><p>“Definitely. It’s framed on my wall at home.”</p><p>“Cool. I did meet Dee Jay though. Unfortunately, my Dad sold his autograph.”</p><p>“Ugh. Really?!”</p>
<hr/><p>Laughing and chatting, the two returned to the bar and sat on the stools as the bartender came over to talk to them. “Anything else I can get you then?”</p><p>A natural blush reached the two young women’s faces for a moment as Akane said. “Can we have a private room for a couple of hours?”</p><p>The bartender turned behind her and reached into a drawer for some keys. “Certainly, I’ll add it to the tab. Have fun, be safe. Try not to fall in.”</p><p>“Right.” Ranma said as Akane took the key. “We’ll be fine.”</p><p>They both made their way along the edges into the back hallway and reaching the door whose number matched their key and slipped inside, shutting the sounds of the club away.</p>
<hr/><p>Three days later on Saturday, Akane was staring at her father.</p><p>“You can’t be serious?” one of the other two women said. She was trying not to yawn and was wearing a pair of sunglasses and sitting noticeably off center from the other two, out of the heaviest beams of sunlight. “An arranged marriage?”</p><p>“Yes, my good friend Saotome and I agreed to marry our children long ago when we had first married,” her father explained sagely. “There’s been some trouble, but it seems he’s finally going to be coming here with his son today.”</p><p>The other woman, with long brown hair and a lovely dress reached up with her hands and rubbed the base of the two small conical horns on her forehead. “Father, I’m with Nabiki here. And were you always just going to dump this on us or did you simply forget to tell us about an arranged marriage for over twenty years?”</p><p>“I thought it would be a pleasant surprise.”</p><p>“We’ve all dated by this point, daddy,” Nabiki said. “Kasumi, Akane, and I have all had multiple relationships.”</p><p>“Yes, well, obviously none of those relationships were going anywhere.”</p><p>Nabiki removed her sunglasses revealing red eyes that attempted to bore into her oblivious father as Kasumi’s nails lengthened while she straightened her dress. The area around Akane began to smell noticeably of ozone as she stood up.</p><p>“I can tell you a lot about how far…” Akane paused and thought about something. “Wait, what did you say the name was?”</p><p>Her father didn’t get a chance to answer as a knock came to the door.</p><p>“Ah, that must be them,” he declared, standing up. </p><p>Kasumi sighed and moved to follow them. “Well, guests are here. I’ll have to make sure to be appropriately polite.”</p><p>Akane sat in the living room and waited as the sound of people came closer. The first one back was Kasumi who’s smile had recovered some mirth somehow without becoming an obvious smirk. And then into the room came a familiar red-head followed by her father and a panda.</p><p>“I’m really not sure what is going on here.” Soun said. “I was certain my friend said that his son was a man.”</p><p>Akane matched eyes with Ranma and waved. “Hey, Ranma. Small world, huh?”</p><p>“Wait, this is your family?” Ranma returned.</p><p>Soun blinked and looked toward his daughter and the red-headed young woman. “You two know each other?”</p><p>“If you’ll excuse us a moment,” Kasumi said, hooking her arms into one of Akane’s who blinked and looked to her.</p><p>“We’ll be right back.” Nabiki added, hooking her elbow around Akane’s other arm.</p><p>“Hey, what are you doing?” Akane asked as her sisters proceeded to drag her into the next room.</p><p>Soun blinked and looked toward where his daughters had just been. “This day is not going at all the way I expected.”</p><p>The panda pulled a sign up from seemingly nowhere on which was written. “You and me both, Tendo.”</p><p>Ranma’s sighed and her shoulders slumped as she found a place to sit and wait. </p><p>Meanwhile, Kasumi was closing the door as Nabiki turned to look toward Akane. “Who the hell is that?”</p><p>“I met her at the exhibition earlier in the week,” Akane said.</p><p>“Is that who you were meeting when asked me to help with you make-up a couple of days ago?” Kasumi asked. “I thought you said that was a guy.”</p><p>“It’s a curse. She changes into a girl.”</p><p>“What is it with martial artists and curses?” Nabiki asked.</p><p>“That’s what I said,” Akane added.</p><p>“Okay, what do you know about him…her?” Kasumi said, the oldest Tendo paused and took a deep breath, which totally had nothing to do with the way the evil red glow in the room vanished almost as quickly as it came. “What pronouns to start?”</p><p>“She’s fluid and seems okay with anything,” Akane said.</p><p>Kasumi battled choice paralysis for a moment before settling. “So, what do you know about them?”</p><p>“A good dancer, great taste in music, asshole father, possibly poly” Akane said. “I’d date them again.”</p><p>“Are you saying that Daddy lucked into an actually potential decent candidate for fiancé with this crap?” Nabiki asked.</p><p>Kasumi was folding her arms meanwhile and straightening her back. “Did anything happen?”</p><p>Akane’s cheeks flushed as she started sputtering. “Why would you ask that?”</p><p>“That’s a yes,” Nabiki said with a smirk and a shake of the head. “Any good?”</p><p>Akane bit her lip and turned her back to her sisters.</p><p>“Oh my,” Kasumi said. She brought a hand to her face, then pulled it away and opened to speak before shaking her head and moving to focus. “That’s not really important right now.”</p><p>She clapped her hands together and moved around to be back in Akane’s line of sight gesturing her hands toward Akane. “How do you want to approach this.”</p><p>“If Ranma’s willing to give it a try,” Akane said. “I am.”</p><p>“All right then,” Kasumi said. “Nabiki can you ask Ranma to come in here?”</p><p>“It’s not even noon yet,” Nabiki said. “I’d rather not do that right…”</p><p>“She’s in the next room, Nabiki, you can walk.” Akane said, rolling her eyes.</p><p>“You’re no fun,” the red-eyed pale woman said. “I’ll be right back.”</p><p>Nabiki fast walked back out to the living room and walked up to where the red-head was sitting on a chair. She noted the other martial artist had chosen a seat out of the way rather than taking up the whole damn couch the way the panda with the sign had.</p><p>“Is there anything you need?” Soun asked his daughter as she entered the room.</p><p>Nabiki grabbed Ranma’s arm and said. “I’ve got it, thank you. Come along, Saotome. We’re ready to see you now.”</p><p>“Umm, okay?” the red-head returned as she was dragged along by the other woman and noting she was stronger than she looked.</p><p>Soun and the Panda watched the two younger people leave. “What is going on in my house?”</p><p>“I was going to ask you that myself.” The panda’s sign read before it spun around to another message reading. “Do you have any hot water?”</p><p>Meanwhile, the younger Saotome found herself standing in the room across from Akane before Nabiki let go of her arm and then moved to lean against the most shadowed corner of the wall.</p><p>“So, after conversation with my youngest sister I have come to question as to what are your intentions here?” Kasumi asked.</p><p>“Uhhh…”</p><p>“Oh shit, I told them about your curse, sorry,” Akane said suddenly.</p><p>Ranma sighed and leaned forward, face planting in the palm of her hand. “Okay, I understand that in the situation? But let me do that with no people from now on, okay?”</p><p>“Totally got it. Won’t happen again.”</p><p>“Excuse me,” Nabiki said. “From now on?”</p><p>“I mean, she ain’t going to forget about me no matter what happens,” Ranma said.</p><p>“May I have the answer to my question please,” Kasumi asked. Ranma noted a slight red-line of light along the edge of her form.</p><p>“Originally? I was going to show off my curse and hopefully get the whole thing to go away and I could go back to ignoring my idiot father. But, now…?” She shrugged helplessly. “I’d like to date Akane more? But…”</p><p>“Yeah, fiancée is a big step after one date,” Akane said.</p><p>“That!” Ranma agreed, waving both hands demonstratively at Akane.</p><p>“This whole thing messes everything up,” Akane said.</p><p>“Why?” Kasumi asked.</p><p>“Because…” Ranma started.</p><p>“It encourages…” Akane began before trailing off.</p><p>“Do both of you want to continue dating each other?” Kasumi asked.</p><p>“Yeah.” The two martial artists said simultaneously.</p><p>“Then don’t let two old men ruin it.” Nabiki said. “Go for it.”</p><p>Kasumi nodded and cupped her chin, thinking for a moment before turning to look first at Akane then Ranma. </p><p>“Right then, so you proceed at your own pace and if they push things, we’ll run interference.” As Kasumi finished she flexed her fingers, nails suddenly extending into long talons as that red-light deepened and starting to glow in her eyes. She blinked then and looked down. “Oh my, excuse me, those get a little excitable you know. Nothing to worry about it.” The nails shrunk again and the light started to diminish. </p><p>“Uh, right, can I get some hot water?” Ranma asked.</p><p>“Certainly,” Kasumi said, “there’s a tap right there.”</p><p>“Thanks.” Then the three Tendo girls watched as Ranma walked to the tap, turned it on and stuck her hand under it until the hot water reversed the curse and he grew taller and filling out his Chinese tunic in a very different way.<br/>
There was a thunk as Nabiki’s feet slid out from under her and gravity introduced her tush to the floor. Kasumi meanwhile nodded appreciatively.</p><p>“Huh. Well, shall we speak to Father?” The eldest Tendo sister gestured toward the door and waited for Akane and Ranma to awkwardly walk past her before following, leaving Nabiki in the room alone for a moment as she stood up and dusted herself off.</p><p>“Wait…” Nabiki froze in mid motion. “Did she say ‘poly’? No…no, bad idea.”</p><p>The middle sister moved into the next room to see the panda replaced by a balding old man wearing a dingy karate gi and old glasses. “Ah, I assume you have a curse like Ranma’s…Mr. Saotome?”</p><p>“Yes, it is terribly tragic tale of fate and…”</p><p>“I’ll ask Ranma later, thank you,” Kasumi said, cutting him off. </p><p>“Kasumi, it isn’t like you to interrupt your elders like that,” Soun said. </p><p>“Except in the years since you made this happen,” the eldest Tendo said, pointing to her horns sharply. “And besides, Akane likes one of these people and the other is pushing an arranged marriage in the 21st century. So, pardon me if I have a bias.”</p><p>“Nabiki, surely you have something to say in defense of…”</p><p>“Exotic ‘blood wine’ birthday gift.” The statement was accompanied by finger quotes.</p><p>“Uhhh…Akane,” Soun asked.</p><p>“Surprise arranged marriage?” Akane said.</p><p>“But you like…”</p><p>Kasumi cleared her throat. “In consultation with Akane and Ranma, they are interested in pursuing a relationship. But it is up to them whether they declare an engagement. Is that clear?”</p><p>“Ah ha! Tendo, our brilliant plan has worked, now it will be nothing but easy times from here on out.” Four sets of eyes locked onto Genma as he clapped Soun on the back. “Where do you keep the sake? This calls for celebration.”</p><p>“Oh! You’re right, Saotome,” Soun agreed. “I know the perfect place to go.” A moment later the two older men were walking out the door out into the town.</p><p>“They listened to exactly none of that,” Ranma said. “So, your curses are also your dad’s fault?”</p><p>“Unfortunately, yes.” “Oh yeah.” “Mine was a stalker.”</p><p>“Well, uh, this day hasn’t gone like I’d expected. I figured I’d be apartment hunting by this time.” Ranma said.</p><p>“Oh right, your father got you evicted.” Akane said. “Are you still at the hotel?”</p><p>“Yeah, hopefully not too long. The next tournament is two months from now.” </p><p>“Tournament?” Nabiki asked.</p><p>“Ranma’s in the third rank of the Streetfighter asso – ”</p><p>“We have a space for rent.” Nabiki interrupted.</p><p>“- ciation. Like me.” Akane asked. “Wait, are you talking about the spare room? There’s no furniture in there.”</p><p>“And I’m certain Ranma would appreciate some…privacy.” Kasumi said.</p><p>The short-haired Tendo walked up to Ranma and leaned in close. “Look, you need a place to stay and I’m sure that hotel is burning through your budget like a wildfire and we have extra space. And I’m sure you’d love to help your girlfriend’s family out with a little bit of financial support.” She moved almost too fast to see, but Akane and Ranma both tracked the woman turning to mist and reforming in front of her elder sister. “And it’s not like we can’t use the extra resources, right?”</p><p>Kasumi blinked and leaned back from her suddenly excitable sister. “You may have a point.”</p><p>Akane sighed and reached up to massage her forehead. “Ranma, I’d like you to meet my sister the vampire. She also drinks blood.”</p><p>“Tendo Nabiki. Pleased to meet you?” The middle sister smiled broadly and Ranma watched her fangs grow to be visible with the grin before they reverted quickly to human size.</p><p>“Right, we did skip introductions before. I’m Kasumi, the eldest sister. I certainly hope you and my sister have a happy future together.” The eldest said giving a beatific smile with closed eyes and a vague sense of menace. “In case there’s any doubt, yes, I’m sort of an oni. It’s not a terribly important detail.”</p><p>“So, about that apartment you need?” Nabiki asked.</p><p>Ranma traded looks with the other two sisters. Akane shrugged helplessly while Kasumi nodded in embarrassment. “We…could use another person who…earns money.”</p><p>“Okay then, I guess I go get my stuff and move in.” Ranma said.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. A New Challenger</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Ranma's living at the Tendou's now and the next step is introducing a certain kendoist and...some people just don't change.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“The furo is here, there’s a koi pond there, there’s the laundry room,” Akane said, rushing past each location and pushed open the double doors leading into the connected side building, “this is the dojo, and fuck this happened fast.”</p><p>“The tour and the dating both,” Ranma said as he looked around to see the familiar training gear of a dojo, some of it stored out of the way in corners. He blinked as he noted a tripod and set of screens sitting incongruously in one corner near a bunch of neatly stacked folding chairs.</p><p>“Idiot,” Akane said with a smirk as she smacked him on the shoulder. </p><p>“Is that photography equipment?” he asked.</p><p>“Oh, yeah, sometimes Nabiki does photography. But mostly she works at a host club,” Akane said. “I mean, we don’t really do any teaching here right now. Dad let his license lapse and I don’t have mine yet. Kasumi sometimes rents it out for local social clubs, but the…” she gestured vaguely toward her head, “oni thing ended a lot of that. I do tournaments when there’s one nearby.”</p><p>“So, what does your father do?” Ranma asked.</p><p>“In theory he has a salary from the ward council, but he mostly spends that on…stuff. I’ve stopped caring enough to pay attention to what he spends it on,” Akane said with a sigh. “It wasn’t always like this. He just started withdrawing as we got older. He stopped really contributing about the time I graduated high school. I…want to think he never got over Mom’s death. Which is a horrible thing to say.”</p><p>“No judgment from me,” Ranma said. “You know, if we’d been fighting under our actual schools at the exhibition, we might have figured this out sooner.”</p><p>“Yeah, but martial artists get weird if you claim Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu as a school though and other people just say ‘what’s that?’” She paused for a moment. “Wait…if our fathers are the main masters of the school…”</p><p>“Oh god, please don’t say that,” Ranma said. “There’s got to be someone else out there besides them.”</p><p>“Couldn’t…” Akane closed her mouth suddenly. “No, nope, I’m not tempting fate with that. By the way, how much stuff do you have to move in?”</p><p>“Some clothes, textbooks, laptop,” Ranma said with a shrug. </p><p>“So, we could head over get it all in one go and take a cab or uber back probably?” Akane asked. </p><p>“Easily,” Ranma said.</p><p>“Then tomorrow we can look around for a bed and desk.”</p><p>“Eh, I’m fine on the floor. I’ve got a bedroll.”</p><p>“Yeah, but I can’t roll off and hide under a bedroll if somebody decides to walk in.” Ranma’s mouth worked silently for a couple of seconds. Before Akane laughed. “You’re too easy, Ranma. I’d rather not go while it’s still raining, but I have a good rain coat if you want to go now.”</p><p>“Want to have a try at that spar now and then go? We only have to worry about breaking things here, no audience.”</p><p>Akane thought about it for a half a second and then nodded and cracked her knuckles. “Let’s go.”</p><p>There was no moving to the center of the room or waiting for bows or pausing to change into a gi. It was hard to tell who moved first. Akane ducked under a circle kick and swept her own legs into the back of Rama’s knee. He quickly twisted into a spin, pulling his leg out of the path of her attack. Akane rose back to her feet and spun into a roundhouse aimed at where Ranma was landing. The acrobatic Saotome saw it coming and reached out to grab the kicking leg and use it as leverage to change the direction of his fall. </p><p>Akane felt the start of her balance being lost and took the moment to throw herself back, snapping her other leg up to catch Ranma in a scissor-lock. Bringing both of them cashing down into the floor. The Saotome fighter grimaced with the impact and reached up to grab the one of Akane’s feet and brushing his fingers along the inner curve until she released an involuntary giggle and loosened enough for Ranma to slip out. Both reached their feet simultaneously and within close range. </p><p>Ranma feinted high and then punched for the stomach Akane flinched as the blow struck but caught the first hand and twisted. Rather than let his shoulder be pulled out of joint, he spun into another flip and tried to compress his hand slim enough to slip through her grip. She let him escape and shifted quickly across the ground to be there when he landed. Punches were traded, mostly to no effect. Akane’s head snapped back as her lip was split in the same moment Ranma was shoved backward. His acrobatics again saved him from a painful fall as he landed on three-points and Akane wiped the blood from her mouth with a smile.</p><p>Akane stood there in a wide stance facing Ranma as he moved into a tall, compact posture tensed to move. Her fingers were splayed and ready to grasp as his were held tightly together like a knife. He could feel the light bruise forming across his chest with a similar smile to her own on his face.</p><p>“Time!” Kasumi called sharply, drawing attention from both fighters. Once she had their attention, her talons directed their attention to the handful of spots around the dojo where planks of wood were newly splintered, some perilously close to some of the photography equipment. “Call it a draw, please.”</p><p>“I guess we got a bit carried away,” Ranma agreed.</p><p>“Right, sorry,” Akane said. “We’ll fix this when we get back from getting Ranma’s stuff.” As she said that, she rushed over to Ranma, grabbed his arm and rushed out of the dojo.</p><p>“It’s still raining,” Kasumi called out. Once she realized they had already left her voice trailed off.  </p><p>“Oww! Fuck!” the shout was loud but distant, somewhat muffled by the rain.</p><p>Kasumi sighed and shook her head. “Oh dear.”</p>
<hr/><p>Nearly a mile away from the Tendo dojo, a short red-headed woman was watching as the dark-haired girl twitched as the light rain fell over them. Ranma reached out momentarily to offer a comforting pat and then jerked her hand back in pain and waving it as a sharp crack split the silence between them.</p><p>“Uh, maybe we should stop somewhere for a little bit.”</p><p>“Yeah,” Akane said. “Probably…probably a good idea. There’s an…” she winced. “There’s an abandoned place up here.”</p><p>“Forget Chun Li, you need to meet Blanka,” Ranma said.</p><p>“Blanka produces bio-electric energy, I’m…Fuck! I’m fused with a lightning spirit.” She pointed up head before breaking into a run to get in under a building’s roof. “Here it is.” She tried the door a grumbled. “Locked…and I don’t feel like breaking anything here.”</p><p>“Yeah, I got it,” Ranma said, moving in and producing a twisted bit of wire and opening the door in a few short movements. “My pop’s a thief. I picked up a few tricks.”</p><p>“I suppose that’s handy,” Akane said as she darted inside and started flicking the light switches to no effect.</p><p>Ranma followed in and looked about the building. “It’s a doctor’s office?”</p><p>“Yeah, Doctor Tofu was the family doctor for more than half my life,” Akane explained as she rooted around until she produced a towel and started drying herself off. “Baths, by the way, easy. One shock and it settles down you can get ready for it. But rain? Or a shower? It’s like a short circuit every couple of minutes.”</p><p>“So, what happened to the doctor?” the red-head asked.</p><p>Akane sighed and leaned against a wall. “We don’t know. He was just…gone one day. Kasumi took it badly. So, did I really…” she sighed and looked to Ranma. “I used to have a crush on him and he taught me a few pressure points. But he was all about Kasumi. Used to just lose all his senses around her.”</p><p>Akane pushed off the wall and started looking through the closets and cupboards.</p><p>“Were they dating?”</p><p>“I was expecting them to, but it never happened,” she said. “Ah, hear we go.” She pulled out a large yellow raincoat made of slick plastic and started pulling it on. “I don’t think he’d mind me borrowing this.”</p><p>“Everything here is just neatly put together,” Ranma commented. </p><p>“Yeah, it’s creepy that way. I think someone comes by and looks it over occasionally, but I’ve never seen them.”</p><p>“Are you sure you want to go back out there?” Ranma asked.</p><p>“I’ll be fine. It takes more than a few drops so the slicker will work fine. Let’s go.”</p>
<hr/><p>The rest of the walk was mostly uneventful before they arrived at the hotel and Akane was looking over the extent of Ranma’s belongings. “Okay, when you said ‘some clothes’ I expected something more than seven outfits.”</p><p>“I used to have more,” Ranma said. </p><p>Akane bent over and picked up the leotard with the bunny tail, then the accompanying bunny-ears. “This looks a little big….this isn’t for your woman form is it?”</p><p>“Uhh, yeah. That was a waiter job in Hong Kong. I had one for this body too, but it was destroyed in a fight.”</p><p>“I…” Akane paused and shook her head.</p><p>“You want to see me in it?”</p><p>“Yes, definitely.” Akane nodded firmly. “I can’t say how much.”</p><p>“I’ll be right back,” Ranma smirked and reached out to grab the leotard before walking to the bathroom. Akane followed the red-head’s motion as the door closed and heard the water going for a few seconds before the sounds of someone shuffling around became audible. Then the door opened and Akane’s eyes widened and fixated from where she was sitting on the bed.</p><p>The black spandex didn’t exactly reveal every detail, but it was obvious that there wasn’t much embellishing going on. The straps around Ranma’s neck probably weren’t even five centimeters wide and his pectorals were only barely covered. The muscle tone and development of his legs were on clear display with nothing between her and them but air. He did a little turn and she giggled a bit as the tail came into view, but also noted that his butt was just as taut in this form as the other.</p><p>“Oh…my.” Akane said as she clapped appreciatively. “That’s…that’s an outfit.”</p><p>“You’re welcome, Miss,” Ranma said, moving into a dramatically servile bow before straightening again. He moved to bed with a bit of a grimace and flopped onto it next to Akane and laughed and shook her head. “But now I realize I was a few centimeters shorter last time I wore this….and maybe a bit thinner.”</p><p>“Oh god, you’re a rail now,” Akane said.</p><p>“Delayed growth spurt,” Ranma said, grabbing a pillow behind his head. “Miss Punches-Like-a-Truck.”</p><p>“Oh, only a truck?” she responded, leaning back to lie next to him.</p><p>“An American truck?”</p><p>Akane paused a moment and then reached out with her hands. “The huge ones. Damn it. The 18 wheelers?”</p><p>“Yeah that.”</p><p>“I can accept that, Mr Catsu…?” Akane leaned up onto her elbow to look at Ranma after feeling him wince. “Something wrong?”</p><p>“I don’t like ca…those things.”</p><p>“What? Wh…nope, not asking. Okay, zipping the bag on that one.” She pulled up her legs and sat crosslegged on the bed facing Ranma. “So, do you have any hobbies? Other than martial arts?”</p><p>“I’m trying a few things, seeing what I like. You?”</p><p>“I collect stuffed animals and do some casual online gaming.”</p><p>“Warquest? No, umm…Evercraft…what the hell. Rune Wars…something like that.”</p><p>“Secret World. All three of us, Kasumi is the only that puts much time into it though.”</p><p>“What’s that about?”</p><p>“Conspiracy theories, monsters, zombies, secret societies fighting each other and protecting the world at the same time. I have an Illuminati character I play about once a week. Nabiki has a Dragon that she plays when the stars are right. Kasumi’s so Templar she has a cosplay outfit based on her character and meets up with some other locals once a month for a Secret World LARP.”</p><p>Ranma looked at her blankly.</p><p>“Yeah, maybe I’ll just show you later.” She glanced over at the lap top sitting on the hotel counter. “I don’t think that will run it.”</p><p>“Yeah, that computer will do some card games, word processing, and YouTube,” Ranma said, propping himself up on his elbows and looking at the computer.</p><p>“So, like we could watch that anime Caffeine is from?” Akane suggested idly with a shrug. “It’s online somewhere, I think.”</p><p>“That’s not a bad idea,” Ranma said, twisting about and half-jumping to a standing position and moving to set-up the laptop. Akane’s head tilted side-ways as she tracked his motions while he set about searching for the show. When he turned around, she moved to meet his eyes and watched as he sat down next to her. “Okay, here we go. Ready.”</p><p>“Well, unless you have a remote for your laptop, it’s already started so I guess, yeah,” Akane said casually.</p>
<hr/><p>Sometime later, after a giant monster bird was cut in half by a gatling gun that turned into a designer handbag and the second season’s playlist came to a close, Akane turned to Ranma. </p><p>“Okay, I just want to make sure we’re in agreement here.”</p><p>“Team CFVY are fucking,” Ranma said with a sage nod.</p><p>“Good, it’s important to be on the same page on important things.” She stood up with the intention of starting the next season and blinked. “Shit, it’s been a couple of hours.”</p><p>“Crap, let me get changed.”</p><p>“Awww.” Akane said with a pout at which point a towel was thrown out of the room and smacked into her hand just short of her face. </p><p>‘Yeah, yeah.” Ranma said as he grabbed some clothes and went back in the bathroom.</p><p>“Seriously though, when we get you a bed and desk, we need to get some clothes.”</p><p>“Yes, mom.”</p><p>Akane blew a loud raspberry at the closed door and laughed.</p>
<hr/><p>With the limited possessions Ranma had to carry with him, they opted not to take a cab and just walk back, which was thankfully free of rain. There was a brief stop at the abandoned clinic to return the raincoat before they returned to Tendo dojo. </p><p>“And those are our terms, Mr. Saotome.” Nabiki’s voice said. “If you don’t want to pay it then you can find somewhere else to stay.”</p><p>“Tendo, you should make your daughter see reason,” Genma was saying.</p><p>Akane looked to Ranma and held a finger to her lip and he nodded as they quietly slipped behind their fathers. Akane’s sisters clearly saw them coming in, but hardly seemed to react at all. The brief moment of eye contact they had with Kasumi looked more like the eldest Tendo rolling her eyes in frustration.</p><p>“Genma is correct,” Soun said. “Certainly, it is not a problem to house my good friend. Why you’ve already said Ranma will be renting the room. He can easily stay…”</p><p>“Father,” Kasumi said, nails lengthening as she smiled and smoke in a sugary polite tone. “You are putting me in a mood.” </p><p>“Do you hear that, Daddy?” Nabiki asked. “Which do you want, your friend in the house, or angry-Kasumi cooking?”</p><p>There was a long stretching silence. </p><p>“Well certainly one of the other girls can cook,” Genma suggested.</p><p>Even from behind, Ranma could see Soun’s skin turn a slight shade of green.</p><p>“Hmm, Saotome, I’m sure you can find other accommodations,” the Tendo father said turning to face his friend and narrowly missing sight of his youngest daughter and her new boyfriend.</p><p>“You can’t be serious, Tendo,” Genma said. “Why, we’ve been friends for as long as we can remember and you’re going to betray me over cooking?”</p><p>Ranma peeked around the corner out of curiosity and caught the sound of Soun whispering intently. “You have no idea of the horrors you are speaking of, Saotome. Trust me on this one, you should find some other place to stay.”</p><p>Akane turned back around, lightly smacked Ranma on the shoulder and gestured for him to follow her, mouthing words insistently. Until they made their way into the hall and then up the stairs. Once they were inside the empty room that Ranma was going to be staying in, Akane released a long breath.</p><p>“What was that about?”</p><p>“Nabiki can’t cook. When I cook, it causes food-poisoning. Kasumi’s cooking skill is second to heaven but if she’s angry…”</p><p>“Oh, all that skill turned to…”</p><p>“Yup.” She sighed. “Anyway, I’d say make yourself at home but…” she gestured to the large, empty room. It almost felt like a tumbleweed would come rolling through any moment.</p><p>“Yeah,” Ranma said, scanning the room before turning back toward Akane. “So…umm, good night?”</p><p>“Am I going to make all the first moves?” Akane asked as she leaned in and kissed him tenderly. “That feels good.”</p><p>“Thank you,” Ranma whispered.</p><p>“Well, we wouldn’t be the first couple to hide things from our parents, even if the reasons are weird.” Akane slowly broke away. “See you tomorrow for furniture, clothes, and another bunny suit.” </p><p>“I’ll be ready.” Ranma agreed as Akane smiled and waved cutely. He walked to the window and watched below as Nabiki with a backpack walked out into the streets and he remembered Akane saying she worked at a host club. A moment later, she vanished in a puff of smoke which stretched swiftly out through the air of the darkening streets.</p>
<hr/><p>When the morning came, Ranma looked in through Nabiki’s ajar door to see her sprawled over her covers dressed in the t-shirt and jeans she’d left in while the backpack was tossed in a corner and had a slinky dress slipping out of it. Briefly he worried there was something wrong, but when he focused her slow hear-beat and breath, and quiet snoring, were as steady and faint as the smell of blood. </p><p>He closed the door softly and turned to see Akane tossing her long black hair to pull out of her jacket.</p><p>“Is she okay?”</p><p>“Nabiki?” Akane asked. “Yeah, she looks the same if she did nothing but read manga all night. Ready?”</p><p>“Yeah, I was supposed to give all my money to Nabiki right?”</p><p>Akane’s face flittered from shocked white to angry red over several seconds before Ranma chuckled. Ranma slammed her hand into his shoulder. “That’s not funny. You have no idea how bad she used to be.”</p><p>“Got it, got it. Nah, I paid her two months down. That doesn’t leave much for furniture or stuff, but I got some.”</p><p>“Okay then, let’s go.”</p><p>They walked out through the hallway and noticed Kasumi passing by on the way to the kitchen. “Have fun and be safe.”</p>
<hr/><p>A middle-aged man blinked in confusion as he watched a man and woman walking along the top of the fence next to the road and chatting casually. His dog also stopped when the leash came to an end and turned to see why his human had stopped, and then turned to look up quizzically at the two humans on the fence.</p><p>“Hello, Mr. Nakamura,” Akane said, glancing down at him and then back to Ranma. </p><p>“Miss Tendo,” the man said, unsure how else to react. “Young man.”</p><p>“I’m Saotome Ranma, pleased to meet you.” The young man bowed, actually bowed…without toppling over.</p><p>“Of course…right.”</p><p>Akane waved and then the two continued walking along the fence, though now Akane turned about and started walking backward. “Okay, I can see how this would be good training. But making every moment of every day into training…”</p><p>“Oh yeah, I was starting to burn out by the time I was 16,” Ranma said. </p><p>“Explains why you don’t know what hobbies you like. I’m not much better. I spent a lot of high school really angry and just punching everything.”</p><p>“You said something about a stalker.”</p><p>“There was more than one,” she explained. “You see, there was this guy who decided to declare that…”</p><p>“Tendo Akane! At last, I have returned to grace your life again. I know you have pined for me horribly.”</p><p>“Oh, you have got to be kidding.” Akane said. She hopped off the fence and twisted so that she landed facing the voice, a tall man maybe a year or two older than her and Ranma. He dressed in a dark blue kendo outfit and was surrounded by several men wearing dark suits and ties with designer sunglasses. “Didn’t you leave the country?”</p><p>“Indeed, I set myself a sacred pilgrimage so that I might prove myself worthy of the gift of your love.”</p><p>“You’re not,” Akane said flatly.</p><p>“Never fear, my lovely tigress,” the man continued. “For I have found the secrets that will save you from your spinsterhood. Your purity is in my capable hands.”</p><p>Ranma looked down toward Akane, pointing toward Kuno and mouthing the words “The fuck is this asshole?”</p><p>Akane rolled her eyes and then shook her head in frustration.</p><p>“Kuno,” Akane said wearily. “I haven’t been ‘pure’ in years.”</p><p>“Of course, I am aware of the cursed demon which the sorcerer afflicted you with…”</p><p>“Yeah, okay, keep telling yourself that’s what I’m talking about.”</p><p>“Now, it is not fit that I should squander such a treasure as yourself and so I shall once again declare that he should defeat Tendo Akane shall have the right to date her,” Kuno shouted, brandishing a bokken straight into the sky.</p><p>“Oh, fuck, are you serious. This again?!” Akane tossed her shoulder bag up to Ranma. “Can you hold this for a moment?”</p><p>“Yeah, sure? You need any help?”</p><p>“I probably got this, but watch my back,” she said to which Ranma gave a small salute. “I have no time for this shit today.”</p><p>As he watched she reached up and pressed her fingers into a spot just under her shoulder blades and then stabbed the first two fingers of each hand into the side of her abdomen and then around the back of her head at the base of her skull. </p><p>As she continued, he felt the atmosphere around her change. Thinking back he remembered her talking about being taught pressure points. He’d simply assumed they were points to be used on somebody else.”</p><p>As she continued to press points on her body in rabid succession, the small horde of men-in-black surged forward. “It is the promised lady, Tendo Akane, I would see you free to date me!”</p><p>“Freya.”</p><p>Her eyes snapped open and the black irises were yellow with lightning as she stepped forward to meet the charge of the horde. The first man produced an extendable baton which shattered within one of her hands as the other slammed into his chest and pushed him upward. The crack of electricity from her skin the day before was nothing. This was a true clap of thunder and the man was sent flying up into the air, landing at the end of his arc upon another two members of the horde. </p><p>Akane came out of that strike and slammed her hand into a puddle on the ground. Cracking pops whipped from her position outward toward the men stampeding through other connected puddles and sending them into convulsions. The horde then split carefully moving around the puddles, one flank pressing against the fence as they moved forward.</p><p>“Ranma!”</p><p>Without waiting for an explanation, he leaped into the air watched her lash out to grab the metal links and yellow-blue arcs of lightning ripped up and down the fence sending the men pushing alongside of it propelling outward and bowling into the flank that had gone the other way around the puddles. She scanned around the horde and then lashed out with a kick to smash into the face of a straggler that jumped down at her screaming from a nearby rooftop.</p><p>Ranma landed lightly beside her as she was once again applying several pressure points and the lightning was draining from her eyes and muttering under her breath. “Are you okay.”</p><p>“No. Problem.” Akane said, visibly trying not to wince and visually inspecting her hands.</p><p>“Well, I can see what you meant by it being useful.”</p><p>“Yeah, it makes crowds of idiots short work anyway.”</p><p>“Hold, what varlet is this that speaks with you so familiarly?” Akane responded to the quest with a long, wordless groan. </p><p>“Ranma, can you tell him?”</p><p>“I’m her boyfriend,” he said.</p><p>“Boyfriend?” Kuno answered, as if he had never heard of anything so absurd. “I have never even met you sir, much less given you permission to court the fair Miss Maiden Tendo Akane.”</p><p>“Well, I only need her permission, not yours.”</p><p>“Nay, fiend, you speak vile falsehoods to serve your own purposes, for it is only I who bare the worth of guarding her virtue. You shall not deflower her whilst I stand.”</p><p>“People don’t talk like that!” Akane protested. “And there are no flowers to de anything.”</p><p>“Have at thee, villain!” Kuno charged Ranma’s position and lashed out with the bokken. Akane dodged aside as Ranma remained where he was eyeing Kuno’s approach. He felt his cheek sliced open as he side-stopped a condensed projectile of air and then another. He lifted his foot up, ignoring it as two projectiles slammed into his leg at the shin and thigh. And then his foot made contact with Kuno’s chest, solar-plexus, knees, groin, and forehead in rapid succession. Akane watched the speed of the kicks from the side, realizing most people would just see the foot sliding up and not even register the individual blows.</p><p>Kuno passed Ranma and flourished his blade, turning to face the young man.</p><p>“Now you see that I cannot be defe…” he stopped in mid-sentence as his eyes rolled back in his skull and he toppled to the ground. </p><p>Akane walked over and jabbed Ranma in the side, near but not into one of the places she’d noticed he’d been tagged. “You were holding back on me. I should have at least…fifteen?... fifteen more bruises!”</p><p>“You were too, I don’t have any electrical shocks. We were trying not to break your dojo.”</p><p>“Which we still have to fix.”</p><p>“Right, which we still have to fix.” Ranma agreed. “Anyway, we’re not the only ones, and this was a real fight.”</p><p>“Yeah, he never goes full out because he doesn’t think he needs to,” Akane said, irritably as she pulled out a phone and dialed a number. “Yeah…I’d like to report a restraining order violation? Oh, he’s unconscious. I’m a better fighter than him. Yeah, let me give you the address. You might send some ambulances for the thugs. Mostly electric shock, maybe a broken bone or two. Yeah. We’ll wait.” She pocketed the phone. </p><p>As the last of the ambulances carted away Kuno and the police officers were driving off, waving at Akane and Ranma, she released a long breath. “That might give me a few days reprieve. If we’re lucky he’ll leave the country again.”</p><p>“That guy the one who gave you your curse?”</p><p>“Nope. Different asshole.”</p><p>“So, is that some sort of ancient Norse thing?” He asked. “With the pressure points?”</p><p>“Hmm? No, just a relaxed seal. The goddess name was just a thing I started to make myself feel badass as a freshly cursed teenager.”</p><p>“It is badass.”</p><p>“Thanks,” Akane said. “Now shopping. Bed and desk first.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I do not like Tatewaki Kunou. I quite like his sister, but I don't like him. So don't expect me to make him a likeable person. Part of my wish fulfillment is that people like him get what's coming to him and even here I have to have that not happen so he can be a recurring problem. But still, I can have him lose.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Limited Restraint</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Kunou has met one half of Ranma, time for the other.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Ranma looked up from his phone to see a pair of people riding comically small motorcycles race down a stretch of marked road through the campus. There were a few onlookers and watched as one of them, a middle-school girl with what seemed to be a polo mallet run off to a get on a bike and pedaling like mad. He shook his head, glad that there was weirdness he didn’t have to deal with as he turned back to the phone and text message there.</p><p>/Class is finishing up here. You?/</p><p>He checked his phone and sighed. /Class starting in five minutes. But after that, I’ll be finished for the day./</p><p>/Okay, I’ll be in the library./</p><p>/Motor club is doing a another thing./</p><p>/Thanks for the heads-up./</p><p>He returned a thumbs up emoji and slipped the phone back in his pocket and jumped past the road up to the top of the bricked off cliff on the other side and then just stepped out onto the path. He thought about walking in through the building entrance, but opted just to leap up to a third floor window and let himself into one of the student lounge areas ignoring the blinking looks he got as he strode in from the unconventional entry point. A little bit further down he looked out and saw the tiny motorcycles making another lap of their circuit and he then he walked into his classroom and worked down through the auditorium style seating to find his normal place in the left wing of the room. </p><p>“Hey, Saotome,” a voice called out cheerfully and he looked down to see another of the students waving at him. </p><p>“Hey Makoto.” Ranma said. “Professor Taylor not in yet?”</p><p>As he spoke, a Caucasian walked out to podium, leaning heavily on a cane as he went. Behind him a young man worked hurriedly to start setting up the tech for the lesson. The man smiled and waved and leaned heavily on the podium after setting his cane aside.</p><p>“If you question why kinesiology is important to an athlete,” the professor noted, “just ask yourself if you want to be spending your 50s getting your knees replaced. Now, where were we?”<br/>
<br/>
Ranma set aside his bag and hurriedly opened his textbook, flipping through several pages to find the right chapter.</p>
<hr/><p><br/>
</p><p>“Yeah, Akane has a new boyfriend,” Nabiki said casually as she sat under the umbrella. “It’s a bit weird. Another martial artist.”</p><p>“I knew it!” The speaker was wolf-eared woman with European features and grey hair sitting across from her. The woman slammed the table with a laugh, though the table didn’t seem to notice. “I saw her at Shouganai dancing with a…oh wait that was a woman.”</p><p>“Red-head?” Nabiki asked. The other woman nodded. “Same person. Shapeshifting, some sort of curse.”</p><p>“Oh, well that’s cool.”</p><p>“Wait, is she dating Ranma?” The speaker was a woman with blue hair and a set of gills most people would have missed unless they were looking for them.</p><p>Nabiki sat up. “Yeah, that’s the name. You’re not getting jealous are you, Megu? You and Akane stopped being a thing a long…”</p><p>“I also dated Ranma,” Megu said.</p><p>“Well, that is a small world,” the wolf-eared girl said.</p><p>“Okay, so, if I could pry, what was your time dating Ranma like?” </p><p>“He was nice, tired all the time. We just ended up more the friends route, I have a couple of classes with him.”</p><p>“Oh god, Granny Holo will love to hear this,” the wolf-eared woman said.</p><p>“Silke…” the blue-haired girl started to say.</p><p>“I am genuinely impressed with how many of your exes you’re still good friends with. Akane, Ranma, me, Toshiro, Kenta…”</p><p>“You make it sound like I sleep around.”</p><p>“Except we never got that far so no, I’m not saying that.”</p><p>“It’s really amazing, Megu.”</p><p>“Let’s get back to talking about Akane and Ranma.”</p><p>Nabiki sighed and shook her head. “Fine, fine, I’ll back off. I haven’t gotten to the weird part yet anyway,”</p><p>“You have to define weird.”</p><p>Nabiki rolled her eyes and then gave Silke a side-eyed glance before continuing.</p><p>“So, my dad gets us all together and tells us that years ago he and his old training buddy decided they were going to arrange their kids to marry. And we’re chewing him out then this red-head walks in and Akane’s like ‘hey, small world.’ Ranma freezes like a deer in headlights while Kasumi and I just about…”</p><p>“What is this I hear?!” a voice demanded.</p><p>Nabiki took in a deep breath and released it. Akane had told her he was around, but she hadn’t expected to run into him. The three girls turned to look toward the voice to see the tall man standing in the kendo outfit.</p><p>“Well, once again, your dark powers have served the light of heaven, Tendou Nabiki,” Kuno declared before depositing a wad of cash in front of her. “Now! I go to challenge the varlet anew to free your sister!”</p><p>Nabiki scrabbled to grab for Kuno as he dashed off. Inadvertently she stepped out of the umbrella’s coverage into the sun light. She hissed wordlessly as the light blinded her and she could see small bits of smoke rise off her skin. Quickly she stepped back into the shadow and grumbled. Across from her Megu had stood up but was looking confused as the man ran around a corner.</p><p>Silke, meanwhile had walked around the table and picked up Nabiki’s shawl, sunglasses, and gloves and was holding them out in a manner that said this was a thing that had happened before.</p><p>“What the hell was that?”</p><p>“One of Akane’s high school stalkers.” Nabiki pocketed the cash as she retrieved her phone and started texting the other two.</p><p>/Kunou overheard me talking about the engagement thing. He talked about ‘challenging the varlet’ for Akane’s freedom or something like that./</p><p>After a few moments she saw that Akane was typing. /Crap, Ranma’s in class and doesn’t have his phone on./</p><p>/What class?/</p>
<hr/><p>The door to the room slammed open loudly and all eyes turned to look up toward the noises and Ranma’s heart sank as he saw who was standing there.</p><p>“Excuse me, kid.” The professor said angrily. “But I’m going to need you to…”</p><p>“Pardon my intrusion but I must interrupt your classes in order to challenge a knave lowest character. You there, Saotome Ranma, do you deny that you manipulated your family connections to arrange your forced relationship with Tendou Akane?”</p><p>“What?!” Ranma shouted. “Get the fuck out of here you lunatic.”</p><p>“No, this evil shall be handled now!” </p><p>Ranma saw him gathering up into the stance for the barrage of condensed air missiles from before and immediately started to move. There was him and Makoto, but most of the students were just basic athletics or sports medicine students. He leaped up and over the kendoist and landed at the door. </p><p>“This is no place for this sort of thing!” Saying that he pushed out through the doors.</p><p>“Come back here you coward!” Kunou rushed after him.</p><p>In the room behind, Makoto stood up and walked over to gather Ranma’s things. “I’ll give him my notes later, professor.”</p><p>“Thank you, kid, I’ll call security then we’ll get back to the matter at hand.”</p>
<hr/><p>Akane was arriving at the building in time to see Nabiki wrapped up in her day-time wear, looking about like a 50s movie star trying to go incognito, come running along with her friends.</p><p>“Do see Kunou anywhere?”</p><p>“We just got here,” Nabiki said. “Maybe he went somewhere else…”</p><p>The sound of breaking glass drew their eyes upward to see a pair of bodies leaping out of an upper story building. By her standards, Kunou was flailing about, clearly unused to aerial travel, but he was still managing accurate strikes with his sword as Ranma deflected them and looked for leverage to adjust his trajectory. As the four women and several other onlookers watched, the two fighting martial artists pushed further out into the air.</p>
<hr/><p>Above them, Ranma was gritting his teeth and twisted to get a look at where they were heading and saw the road below, and in the distance a pair of rapidly approaching miniature motorcycles. “You maniac! Would you watch where you send us?!”</p><p>“I am sending you to hell, villain!”</p><p>Ranma pushed through the assault to grab Kunou’s shirt then use the leverage to twist the pair of them and slam the kendoist into the brick wall before pushing off and passing over the site of the race as the two mini-cycles passed by. </p><p>Akane watched this from above and called out. “Ranma! You’re heading for the pool!” And then she leaped down to land on the street make another hop further seeking to intercept the other two.</p><p>“Damn it, Sis!” Nabiki shouted. “We’re not all superheroes!”</p><p>“Well, in theory you could follow her…” Silke said. Nabiki stared at her and gestured vaguely upward at the sun. “I said in theory.”</p><p>“I think the nearest stairs are over this way!” Megu shouted and ran in the direction she was pointing. The other two followed behind her.</p>
<hr/><p>“Get out of the way!” </p><p>Ranma watched as the people in the pool scattered moments before the two martial artists slammed down into it. Ranma felt the familiar change was over her and started to swim for the surface before feeling herself grabbed from below and the garbled sound of someone trying to shout. She slammed her elbow back into Kunou’s face and pushed herself up out of the water, helped up by two of the swimmers. She coughed and pushed the bit of water out of her throat that she’d reflexively tried to breathe and rearrange her t-shirt.</p><p>“Hey, are you all right?” One of the swimmers asked. </p><p>She didn’t answer and just rushed further away from the pool. Behind her, Kunou struggled out of the pool as well and standing up. “That was a woman.”</p><p>One of the swimmers stepped in front of Kunou with an outstretched hand toward the kendoist.</p><p>“Hey, dude, maybe you should turn around and go the other way? She doesn’t look like she wants to deal with you.” </p><p>“And the villain that I was battling. Whither did he retreat to?”</p><p>“Dude I don’t know what you’re talking about, but it’s really time for you to leave.”</p><p>“Bah, you are useless, out of my way!” He pushed past the swimmers and scanned his head around to seek a direction to run.</p><p>After the soaking kendoist left sight, one of the swimmers from the other side of the pool called out. “Is anybody going to comment that they fell from up there and just…ran out of the pool?”</p><p>And then Akane landed on top of a light pole, shaded her eyes a moment and jumped down to grab a towel and then leaped away. “Excuse me, I need to borrow this.”</p><p>“This university is weird.”</p>
<hr/><p>Ranma leaned against the tree coughing and trying to finish recovering her breath. </p><p>“Hey, Ranma, catch.” </p><p>The redhead turned around and grabbed the towel out of the air and nodded wordlessly as she started to dry herself off. Akane resisted the urge to pat her on the back to help her recover. No sense giving Ranma a zap now. Instead she turned to look for any sign of the source of the problem. She was rewarded with an early warning as Kunou pushed through the trees.</p><p>She stepped forward and got into stance. “Stop right there!”</p><p>“Ah, it is the fierce tigress Akane Tendou,” he said. “No doubt you came to show your favor for my quest, but who is the lovely girl behind you?”</p><p>“Is he fucking serious?” Ranma asked between coughs.</p><p>“She doesn’t want to talk to you either, Kunou, back off.”</p><p>“Ah, I see it clearly now. That dastardly Saotome fled from our confrontation and left this maiden in his place to serve as a distraction. Well, he shall face my wrath for that as well.” Kunou cupped his chin and considered the matter. </p><p>“I’m telling you, Kunou, one more step and that’s 100 meters,” Akane warned.</p><p>The kendoist didn’t seem to be paying attention and advanced. “Nay, I must know the pig-tailed girl’s name.”</p><p>Akane rolled her eyes and shook her head. She started pressing points on her body as Kunou came closer, bokken not even up in a guard. Ranma started to get into a ready position so she paused to wave her off. Ranma nodded and sat down and continuing to dry off. Akane was taking her time so that Kunou had every chance to see what she was doing but didn’t seem to pay attention.</p><p>“Pigtailed girl, I beg you to respond to my request for your name.”</p><p>“Fuck you.” Ranma snapped back. </p><p>At which point Akane whispered the name of Freya and then rushed forward to grab hold of Kunou’s gi and then thrusting her palms into his chest and shoving his twitching body back into first one tree, then another, ending by slamming him into the ground. She scoffed in disgust at the complete lack of anything like an attempt to counter her knowing that he was quite capable of putting up a fight.</p><p>“You good?” Akane asked.</p><p>“Yeah,” Ranma said, standing up and breathing clear. “I’m good now.”</p><p>A moment later Nabiki and her friends stumbled into the scene in various states of being out of breath and sweating. Nabiki saw where Kunou was senseless on the ground and moved toward her sister. “Are you two all ri…”</p><p>“Don’t touch me!” Akane said swiftly backing away and putting her hands out.</p><p>“Oh,” Nabiki said stepping back and snatching her hands away. “Got it.”</p><p>Akane started again to reseal her curse while Silke held up a phone and then put it to her ear. “Campus security? Yeah, there’s a creep over here been harassing some woman. One of them has a restraining order against him.”</p><p>“Ranma!” Megu said. “You look terrible, did you try to breathe the water?”</p><p>“Not on purpose,” she muttered. </p><p>“I’ve told you chlorinated water is not good to breathe.”</p><p>“I’m an air-breather, no water is good to breathe for me.”</p><p>“Wait,” Akane said. “You and Megu?”</p><p>“Yeah, my last year of high school. You?”</p><p>“Summer break first year of university,” Akane responded. </p><p>“Oh, I was doing mountain training at the time.” Ranma shook her head in disbelief. “Wow, it’s a small world. How did we not meet before?”</p><p>Akane made a non-committal sound of confusion and shrugged widely.</p><p>"Anyone else up for Shouganai once the cops take him away?" Silke waved toward Kunou as if indicating a disgusting mess.</p><p>"I won't get to class before it's done," Ranma said. "Why not?"
</p>
<hr/><p>“Are we the first in today?” Ranma asked as they came in through the entrance into Shouganai and saw a pointy eared person sweeping through the room with a broom.</p><p>“Hey, do you have a watch?” the person said.</p><p>“Well, I can check my phone, yeah,” Akane said. “Why, Jay?”</p><p>“So, let’s consider the concept of time, as in read it right now? And then, maybe look at the sign.”</p><p>Akane and Ranma looked toward the clock on the wall and then Ranma chuckled nervously as Akane facepalmed. </p><p>“Half an hour before opening,” Ranma said.</p><p>Maim appeared and started checking the bar and organizing things. “Since you are here, maybe you can help get things ready.”</p><p>“Or lock the door.”</p><p>“We don’t have keys to the place,” Akane noted.</p><p>Jay reached into a pocket took out a key and tossed it toward Akane who caught it.</p><p>“Right.” Akane walked back to the door as Ranma went inside to start pulling chairs off tables, careful to avoid getting in Jay’s way.</p><p>Akane came back with a smirk and a moment later her phone rang. Ranma looked at her quizzically as the Tendou woman answered the phone and set it to speaker mode. Nabiki’s voice came through.</p><p>“Why did you just lock the door?”</p><p>“What are you talking about?”</p><p>“Why, dear sister, did you lock the door to Shouganai? How do you have the key?”</p><p>“It’s like half-an-hour before Shouganai opens, Nabiki. Why would I be over there?”</p><p>“I…I just saw you. You looked at me through the door, locked it, waved at me, smiled and then left.”</p><p>“I’m glad I don’t have siblings,” Ranma said with a sigh.</p><p>“Wha…am I on speaker phone?! Ranma what’s going on?!”</p><p>“The door was unlocked by accident and we got roped into helping set up and that included locking the door.”</p><p>“Fine, Akane…” Nabiki then audibly took a deep breath before shouting “…Nabiki will remember this!”</p><p>Akane continued laughing well after Nabiki hung up and she’d put her phone back in her pocket before Jay walked over made eye contact and handed her several trash bags before pointing to the trash cans that needed to be lined and placed.</p><p>“She turns into mist, right?” Ranma asked.</p><p>“Nabiki’s not truly undead, but she still functions under some reduced limits,” Carmilla explained as she walked into the room. “The sun doesn’t kill her but it’s blinding and painful. She needs blood but has a lot of leeway in what is palatable. And she can enter uninvited, but a locked door or window might as well be a wall.”</p>
<hr/><p>Nabiki sat across from Akane and tried to simultaneously ignore and glare at her for the first fifteen minutes after everybody was inside and seated. </p><p>“Hi, you must be Ranma, I’m Silke.” The wolf-woman said reaching out her hand to shake.</p><p>“Oh, German?”</p><p>“Yes, that’s me. I’m here to get a degree in the family business.”</p><p>“What’s the family business?”</p><p>She bounced a bit before answering. "Business. Nabiki’s in a lot of my classes.”</p><p>“Oh, you’re majoring in business?”</p><p>“Photography.” Nabiki suddenly was speaking in a cheerful and polite tone, directing a smile toward Ranma. “But I want to make sure I can sell the photos I take.” </p><p>And then she switched right back to glaring at her little sister. </p><p>“I know Megu’s major. Inhuman-biology, right?”</p><p>“Yeah, which is odd, because we’re mostly human related, you know?” </p><p>“Yep.” Silke said.</p><p>“Or formerly human.”</p><p>“It was half a glass, that’s it.” Nabiki muttered.</p><p>“Or only not human from a legal stance because stupid laws.”</p><p>“Certified monster.” Akane nodded before sipping her soda.</p><p>“Still it’s better than when it was called ‘xeno’-biology before we met actual aliens.”</p><p>“Ranma and I are both aiming at our license to teach martial arts. I’m taking a sports medicine major though.”</p><p>“Education for me, which means I’ll probably end up a high school teacher.”</p><p>“I don’t know,” Akane said with a shrug. “We could get the dojo running, maybe.”</p><p>“Excuse me.” The table turned to face the voice and saw a pair of other college-aged women. “There are a lot of…uh…well, is this a lesbian bar or a…uh monster bar?”</p><p>“It’s a sanctuary bar,” Nabiki said.</p><p>“What’s that mean?”</p><p>“It means everyone’s welcome as long as you don’t fuck with anyone,” Akane said.</p><p>“Owner is the lady over there,” Ranma said, pointing out Carmilla. “She can give you the rundown.”</p><p>“Umm, thanks,” the woman said before the two started working their way through the building crowd to speak to the woman.</p><p>“I mean, non-humans are still outnumbered in here, just on a quick scan,” Silke said. </p><p>“A lot of us can pass really easy though.”</p><p>“I guess that’s true,” the wolf-woman said. “Different subject. I know why Akane and Nabiki are sparse with alcohol, but what about you, Ranma?” She pointed toward his orange juice.</p><p>“Same reason as Akane and Nabiki, I think,” Ranma said.</p><p>“His dad may even be worse than ours.” Nabiki said.</p><p>“Ewww.”</p><p>“Oh, on the subject of my photography, to back track,” Nabiki said. “There’s something I’ve been meaning to broach…but now I think of it, today might not be the best time to suggest it given Kunou.”</p><p>“Why would that have anything to do with what you want to ask about?” Ranma asked.</p><p>“Because…I sometimes take photos to sell as pin-ups, sexy calendars, softcore porn, that sort of thing,” Nabiki said. </p><p>“I thought you did stuff like ID photos or school pictures, family portraits,” Ranma said. “Events and things.”</p><p>“I do, except the IDs, you can just go in a photomat outside a supermarket for those,” Nabiki said, nodding. “But I also do sexy photos. And both your bodies would be really…appreciated.”</p><p>“Especially in one of those outfits,” Akane said with a smile.</p><p>“What outfit?” Silke asked.</p><p>“I can’t believe you convinced me to replace the one that was destroyed,” Ranma said, shaking his head.</p><p>“Is it the bunny outfit?” Megu asked to which Akane nodded.</p><p>“Bu….bunny outfit?” Nabiki sputtered. She shook her head. “Anyway, umm, would that be something you’re interested in?”</p><p>“Why would you know two bunny outfits? Is one in a different color or something?” Silke asked.</p><p>Megu leaned over and whispered in Silke’s ear and the wolf-woman’s eyes popped wide and her head cocked to the side with her mouth wide open.</p><p>“Is this for pay?” Ranma asked.</p><p>“She’ll play it up as she’s got you wrapped around her finger and she’s getting a massive deal,” Akane said. “But she offers good royalties.”</p><p>“Akane, are you set on ruining all my fun today?” Nabiki asked wearily.</p><p>“There’s a poster of me in skimpy Asuka cosplay on a few walls around the world,” Silke said. “I dyed my hair and tail red for the occasion.”</p><p>“Am I going to have to see photos of me everywhere and deal with creeps?” Ranma asked.</p><p>“I mostly sell that stuff online,” Nabiki said. “No local advertising because…well let’s say I may have inadvertently encouraged Kunou in high school and don’t want a repeat.”</p><p>“Umm, let me think about it.”</p><p>“Sure, no problem,” Nabiki said with a nod. “Also, how do you know my offers are good?”</p><p>“Because you’re the only person I let take pictures of me for stuff like that,” Akane said. “But you’re not the only one to give me offers.”</p><p>“Oh, huh,” Nabiki said. “I’d quip about a market for muscular women, but well, I already knew that because your pics sell.”</p><p>“While we’re on the subject of business though,” Ranma said. “Akane, there’s a mixed division tournament coming up.”</p><p>“Yup, I know,” she said. “But it’s out of the country and it’s like several tournaments divided by rank. Looking at the purses, the lower half of the ranks are basically only profitable for locals.”</p><p>“Yeah,” Nabiki said. “That tournament wants low-rank fillers to kill time, but it only puts out money for bigger ranks. The difference between the purse for rank 5 and rank 6 is, I shit you not, almost two orders of magnitude.”</p><p>“There’s also a team bracket.” Ranma said. “And team members can also compete individually.”</p><p>Akane and Nabiki sat up straight and shared a look.</p><p>“Team purses are…” Nabiki paused and leaned in as she continued “…good.”</p><p>“Competing in both brackets would be demanding,” Akane said cautiously.</p><p>“How do divisions work?” Silke asked.</p><p>“I’m traditional division,” Ranma said. “I haven’t yet gotten into the esoteric stuff. I’m just really strong and really fast and have mastered the basic techniques...a lot.”</p><p>Akane nodded and flexed her fingers letting the electricity slip between them lightly. “Freestyle has a lot more magic and superhuman elements. Only limit is no pets or weapons.”</p><p>“Mixed lets you use those?” Megu asked.</p><p>“Yeah, but that’s mostly because it lets in the duelists too. Mixed is like…” Ranma thought for a moment “…freestyle and then some. Plus, it recognizes rank from all the other divisions.”</p><p>“They’re also not very common tournaments.” Nabiki added. “So, there aren’t many that are dedicated mixed division.”</p><p>“The World Warrior division is mixed. We have, what, three months to enter? Seven to train and maybe chances to rank up before getting there?” Akane nodded. </p><p>“This is a workable idea,” Nabiki said, straightening again. “Okay then, let’s start working on that.”</p>
<hr/><p>Akane stretched as she woke up and stepped out of the bed. The sound of snoring beside brought her eyes toward Ranma where he was still sleeping. She smirked as she fumbled around for her athletic binder and pulled it on. The sound of a knock on her door and her father’s voice alarmed her and she quickly threw the blankets over Ranma.</p><p>“Akane, are you in there?”</p><p>“Just a second, Dad,” she said, pulling on her pajama bottoms and coming up to the door. She almost just opened but first shoved her trashcan and the used condom out of sight. “What is it? I have to get ready for my morning run.”</p><p>“I noticed that Ranma has sometimes not been sleeping in the bed we purchased for him,” Soun said.</p><p>“The one he bought with his money and which I just helped him pick?”</p><p>Soun fumbled. “Yes, that one. In the room we’re providing.”</p><p>“For which he’s paying rent for?”</p><p>“Yes, that one. Regardless, I’ve noticed he seems to spend some nights away,” Soun explained as Akane counted in her mind the whole two times that Ranma had spent the night in her room in the ten days he’d been living here. </p><p>The younger martial artist braced herself for her father turning her relationship developments into his and his friend’s successful plan…again. Especially when a particularly loud snore drifted out of her room.</p><p>“What’s that?”</p><p>The younger Tendou leaned back and looked toward her computer, which was switched off. “Oh, YouTube.”</p><p>“Ahh, that’s one of your games, right?”</p><p>Akane nodded, “Sure, what do you want?”</p><p>“I want to make sure you are being appropriately welcoming to Ranma, we don’t want to see him driven off,” he said.</p><p>Soun’s daughter blinked and stared, her mouth twitched briefly, and she felt one of her hands opening and closing until she clutched it with the other. “At the moment, Dad. He’s a lot more welcome than you are.”</p><p>“Ah excellent,” Soun said. “Good to hear, I’ll be sure to pass along the word to Genma. We are trying to figure out where he goes to when he doesn’t stay in his room.”</p><p>The young woman waited for her father to turn around and walk down the hallway before closing the door and saying under her breath, “What the fuck is the deal with this engagement?”</p><p>She sat down on the bed and poked Ranma getting a sharp “Oww.”</p><p>“When did you wake up?” </p><p>“Sometime before surveillance state,” Ranma said, twisting to sit beside her. “Should we keep this to when we’re both out of the house?”</p><p>“Should we, maybe? Do we want to? Kasumi and Nabiki know, you can be damn sure. They’re just too polite to say anything. And they don’t care anyway. It's just our fathers I wish would back off.”</p><p>“Fuck them,” Ranma said.</p><p>Akane leaned her face into his forehead. “I don’t want to fuck them. I want to fuck you.”</p><p>“Awww…”</p><p>The moment was broken with a crash and a shriek coming from downstairs. Ranma and Akane grabbed clothes and rushed downstairs to see Nabiki’s face splattered with blood and hold the handle of a cup which was now scattered across the kitchen with other blood spots. She was close to hyperventilating and staring at a quivering arrow with a message scroll tied around it.</p><p>“I liked that mug,” Nabiki said as Kasumi handed her a towel and unwrapped the scroll. She looked down at herself. “And these pajamas.”</p><p>“To the pig-tailed girl,” Kasumi read. “We must resolve the issue before us. Meet me at the abandoned field at the time of highest sun at the end of the week. Kunou Tatewaki.’ Come on, Nabiki, let’s see if we can save the clothes. Akane, you can call my friend, right?”</p><p>Akane was turned to the wall and slamming her head into the wall has hard as she dared. She gave Kasumi a thumbs up while still leaning against the wall.</p><p>“He sent a message with an arrow?” Ranma said in disbelief. “What century does he live in?”</p>
<hr/><p>Tatewaki stood dramatically tall, attempting to pose backlit by the sun…which was directly above him rather than setting or rising. There was no bokken in his hand as he waited patiently or at least, not a weapon in the traditional sense but instead a weapon in his quest for love, a bouquet of roses. The sound of a car pulling up sent a wave of annoyance for the broken imagery he was trying to convey, especially when it stopped, and then a door was opened and closed. He glanced over and saw a pair of police detectives walking his way.</p><p>“Kunou Tatewaki?” one of the two asked.</p><p>“Indeed magistrate, what can one such as I do for you?”</p><p>“Would you take a look at this?” the police officer said, handing out an envelope. Kunou looked at suspiciously.</p><p>“The last time a police officer offered me such an envelope it contained a blasphemous order that I should remain at a distance from my love.”</p><p>The police officer thought about that a moment and turned to his partner. “Yeah, it had a restraining order. You’re right.”</p><p>“And is this also such a thing?”</p><p>“Onda? Is this a restraining order?”</p><p>“I mean, why would they send him a second one, Aoshima?”</p><p>“You have a point. She has a point. Why would you be receiving a second restraining order when you already have one?”</p><p>Kunou thought about it for a long minute and nodded sagely. “You both make a fair point, hand me the envelope.”</p><p>Detective Aoshima handed it over and as Kunou started to open it Detective Onda began speaking. </p><p>“It’s a restraining order. You are not to come within 100 meters of one Saotome Ranma, either male or female form. Coming within 100 meters will mean they can assume you mean them harm and act in self-defense among other legal repercussions. Is this understood?”</p><p>“You said this wasn’t a restraining order.”</p><p>“No, we asked why would they be giving you a second one?” Aoshima said. “Though we are flat allowed to lie to you.”</p><p>“Curses,” Kunou snapped. “I shall be sure not to fall for such deception in the future.”</p><p>“On that note, we also have this for you.” Onda offered a second envelope.</p><p>“What’s this?”</p><p>“It’s not a restraining order,” the woman holding the envelope said.</p><p>“All right then, let me see it.” Kunou took the envelope and started opening it.</p><p>“It’s a restraining order,” Detective Aoshima said. “You are not to come within 100 meters of one Tendou Nabiki. Coming with 100 meters will mean she can assume you mean her harm and act in self-defense such as calling her sister over to beat you to within an inch of your life...”</p><p>“And other legal repercussions.” Onda added.</p><p>“Right, and other legal repercussions. Thank you, Onda,” Aoshima said turning to his partner who nodded. “Is this understood?”</p><p>“Curse you and your legal loopholes! I shall fight free of your cursed bureaucracy yet!”</p>
<hr/><p>Three days earlier, Akane hung up the phone and turned to Ranma. “So, Kasumi has had two boyfriends and one of those is a prosecutor.”</p><p>“Ahhh,” Ranma said.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I like doing references, but the current plan is that this won't be a huge crossover thing. I'm probably going to continue to have cameos and references to other things but my plan is avoid having them touch too closely to the main storyline, which should be purely Ranma. There is also a reason why the normal friends Nabiki is paired with aren't there, but that'll be later. As a note, I am partially using the Streetfighter RPG from White Wolf for the non-World Warrior streetfighter structure, but only partially.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. The Lost Man</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Another major character to be introduced...he finally found his way to the fic.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The town was set into the forest and looked like something a bit out of time, the tall and tightly packed trees that surrounded it added to the impression. Though it didn’t take long to find the cell tower that served the area. From that it was a bit easy to see that the forest was less immediately ancient and more cultivated than someone would first guess. Trees were grown to be cut down and sold as materials for things like the pillars of torii shrines. It was a fading occupation as advances made it so that fewer and fewer people were needed to meet the demand around the country.</p><p>Through the middle of the streets, a young man walked and looked down at his phone, a moderately confused expression on his face. He wore a dingy yellow tunic and black pants with leather soled travel shoes. On his back was a massive backpack topped by a red bamboo umbrella. </p><p>“It’s got to be around here somewhere.”</p><p>A sudden crash and outcry drew his attention. He set his phone into his pocket and looked up the path toward the source of the sound.</p><p>“Monster!” someone shouted. “There’s a monster coming!”</p><p>One of the village residents darted down the road ahead of a column of dust. It was sizeable enough to be caused by some sort of monster. He watched people darting out of the way left and right and saw the first screaming man pass him. </p><p>“What are you doing!” the man shouted at him. “Get out of the way!”</p><p>The young man simple reached up for his umbrella and held it outward. There was a small shockwave as the monster slammed into the end of the bamboo item and…just stopped. It continued to ineffectually try to push at the obstacle that had presented itself, anger clear on its face as it scratched at the ground and shoved.</p><p>The young man behind the umbrella looked at it with a bit of disappointment. “Some monster here, there’s no bounty in this.”</p><p>He shook his head and then ducked, lowering the umbrella and slipping underneath the surging form of the boar before launching it straight up into the air. Everyone stared at him for the two seconds it took until the whistling sound of the boar returning to earth became audible shortly before it smashed into the earth.</p><p>“You…you stopped him with an umbrella?” one of the villagers said, in near awe.</p><p>“Yeah, can I ask a favor?” the young man asked.</p><p>“You just saved our village, certainly anything you want.”</p><p>A young woman eyed Ryouga up and down and repeated, “Anything you want indeed.”</p><p>“Can you tell me where the Shirahama Stadium is?” he asked, taking his phone out of his pocket and showing the location. “The map doesn’t seem to show where I am.”</p><p>The man looked at the phone, blinked, looked up at the warrior and then back down again. Next to him, the woman shook her head. </p><p>“Can I see your phone for a moment?” </p><p>“Umm, sure.” The warrior shrugged and handed over, watching as the woman took two fingertips to the phone and then spread them apart, and then repeated the gesture two more times. Each time causing the warrior’s expression to further darken.</p><p>“There you are.” </p><p>He took the phone back and saw the indicator highlighting his position, nearly seventy kilometers away from where he was trying to reach.</p><p>“Thanks,” he said and started to walk off.</p><p>Several of the villagers shared looks and one or two pointed at him. He couldn’t be sure they were talking about just how lost he was, but he was pretty sure that was a more common topic than his ability to fight or beat up overly large animals. Shaking his head, he looked down at his phone and grumbled. Now neither his goal nor his current position were on the screen.</p><p>“Which way was it?”</p>
<hr/><p>“What do we do about this Tendo?” Genma asked as he stared down at the Shogi board and then up to meet his friend’s eyes. As he did so, he palmed a couple of stones off the board. </p><p>“Is it really a thing to worry about?” Soun asked, shifting a pair of stones a little bit to the side. “She is still a Tendo.”</p><p>“Yes, but she’s hardly a martial artist,” the bald man noted. Some stones shifted position. “And for that matter, there’s her condition.”</p><p>“Nabiki has never killed anyone, or even drank their blood without permission,” Soun said, sounding offended. His sharp motions concealed the motion as he placed some extra stones on the board.</p><p>“Yes, but the next generation,” Genma commented, waiting for Soun to look away in thought before he shifted the board around.</p><p>“I’m sure she would have mentioned if she’d be unable to have children,” Soun protested, taking a couple of stones and shifting them to the other side of the board.</p><p>As they spoke, Akane started walking in after her morning run and toweling the sweat off her face. She was about to pass them, taking a wide berth to do so, when Genma turned around and called her out. “Akane! You need to take this in hand right now!”</p><p>“What the hell?!” Akane snapped. “I’m just walking past!”</p><p>“Saotome is correct, Akane,” Soun said. “You must put a stop to this right now!”</p><p>“What are you….” Akane stopped. “Don’t tell me you two broke a shrine or something last night.”</p><p>Both fathers paused and thought deeply for a moment before Soun responded. “Not that I know of…no, that’s not the problem. It’s your sister.”</p><p>Akane blinked as Genma moved several pieces on the game board. “Wait, did you…”</p><p>“Yes, your sister was in her room with my son and he was in the process of getting undressed.” </p><p>As he spoke, Soun rotated the board two-hundred and seventy degrees. “Are you two…”</p><p>“As his fiancée, you should bring him to heel!”</p><p>“You two are unbelievable,” Akane said, shaking her head and stalking off.</p><p>Genma looked down at the board and considered it for a while. “Were you black or white?”</p><p>Soun opened his mouth and then looked around for the bowls which were placed at opposite ends of the board. “Hmm, I think white.”</p>
<hr/><p>“Swimsuits, I’m fine with. Like one-piece things, you know, covering the midriff?”</p><p>Nabiki nodded and considered that as she looked through the section of her wardrobe in Ranma’s sizes. Behind her on the bed were half a dozen outfits already in sizes much too large for his woman’s body. She came to a line of swimsuits and checked the tabs on them to see when they were last used.</p><p>“Oh, here’s one perfect for you.” She said smirking and turned around to present a swimsuit emblazoned with the word “Guy” in English artfully at an angle. “It doesn’t even look like its been used before.”</p><p>Ranma laughed and nodded. “Perfect.”</p><p>“I may have a tuxedo in here that will be uncomfortably tight for you but will look…very nice.” She walked to the other side of the closet, passing by her mirror. Her reflection was transparent, as if she were a ghost, but it was there.</p><p>The sound of a knock on the door caught their attention and Ranma walked over to open the door to reveal Akane. The youngest Tendou leaned down and lightly kissed the red-head before walking into the room. “You two aren’t having sex in here are you?”</p><p>Nabiki stopped looking through the clothes and sighed, shaking her head. “Did they get after you too?”</p><p>Akane sat down on Nabiki’s desk chair and nodded while Ranma put her palm in her face and walked back to the outfits draped on the bed. “I really think they were more concerned with trying to cheat at their game of shogi than really worried about it.”</p><p>“Idiots.”</p><p>Akane nodded and looked over the outfits. “You decided to do the pictures?”</p><p>“Yeah, nothing nude or really skimpy, but feels harmless.”</p><p>“How about the sundress?” Akane asked.</p><p>“I thought about it, but I’ve already got five models in that dress.”</p><p>“Might I make a suggestion?” Everyone looked to see Kasumi in the doorway. The eldest Tendou was gesturing toward her apron and the handkerchief around her head.</p>
<hr/><p>Ryouga scrolled his phone left and right and scratched his head. As he stood there, cars driving past along the road behind him, a man walked up to him.</p><p>“Do you need help there?” </p><p>He glanced up and looked over at the smiling man. He looked European, or maybe American, a tourist either way. Cautiously he looked down at his phone and took a deep breath. “Yeah…I’m looking for Shirahama Station.”</p><p>“Where’s that?” </p><p>“Tokyo.” Ryouga braced himself.</p><p>“Oh, you’re about thirty miles away from Tokyo. Here let me find it on your phone.” Ryouga handed the phone over as he tried to figure out what miles converted into kilometers. “This is zoomed in on Kenya.”</p><p>Ryouga nodded and shook his head. “Because of course it is.”</p><p>“Here you go, and one moment, there you go. Should take you right there.”</p><p>He took the phone back and saw it was presenting a line between him and his target that bent and shifted this way and that. “Hey thanks! This is really helpful.” </p><p>As the martial artist started to walk off the man looked confused and turned back to the line of parked cars.</p><p>“Take a slight left.” The phone said.</p><p>Ryouga blinked and stared at it. “It talks? Umm, what’s a slight left?” Glancing around he could only see the road curving around the right into two forked directions and shrugged. “Okay then.” Then he leaped off the cliff and down into the trees.</p><p>“He’s…walking?” the man who had helped him said in confusion.</p><p>Ryouga landed upon the slope… “Recalculating”…slid a few feet…”Recalculating”…and leaped again bracing as he went through a tree, slammed face first into the one behind it…”Recalculating”…landed on his back and rolled, bouncing…”Recalculating”…down the slope before finally coming to a semi-flat clearing in the forest.</p><p>“Oooof.” Ryouga sat up and rotated his shoulders and other joints to make sure everything was functional.</p><p>“Please recalibrate the GPS.”</p>
<hr/><p>“My first match is third in the round,” Akane said. “You?”</p><p>“Fifth,” Ranma said. “Looks like I’m matched against a savateur.”</p><p>“Wow they’re a long way from…” Nabiki blinked. “There’s an Osaka school of Savate?”</p><p>“Oh, I know my opponent, he’s a teleporter, but his style is mish-mash nonsense.”</p><p>“Your matches are in the north end of the arena, Ranma,” Nabiki said, pointing at him. “And you’re south.” </p><p>“Are you going to be okay manning the supplies?” Akane asked. “That’s a lot of running around.”</p><p>“I’ve recruited some help,” the middle sister said, nodding. “Anyway, the goal is ranking. Ideally that means both of you winning your divisions, but don’t risk major injury, got it? It’s not elimination and there are enough matches here that as long as you two just maintain your win ratio you’ll rank.”</p><p>Ranma nodded. “You want us to play it safe?”</p><p>“Well, not too safe,” Nabiki said. “Money would be nice. Anyway, I’m going back to the rental and wait for the reinforcements before setting up the pit. You two need to be going for the opening ceremony.”</p><p>“Good luck.”</p><p>The two martial artists left, leaning into each other as they moved through the crowd and headed for the arena floor and Nabiki started pressing the other direction. She pushed around a small family.</p><p>“Look honey, it’s a streetfighter.” A voice said and Nabiki looked to see a father bending down to his little daughter.</p><p>“Can I get an autograph lady?”</p><p>“I’m not a fighter.”</p><p>“Oh, come on, give the girl an autograph.”</p><p>“No, really, I take photos and carry water,” Nabiki said. “Wrap bandages.”</p><p>“But you’re a vampire, aren’t you?”</p><p>“That doesn’t mean I know how to fight.”</p><p>The little girl looked upset and about to cry.</p><p>“Okay, listen, if I let you take a photo with me, you can say you met one of the pit crew, is that okay?”</p><p>The little girl nodded enthusiastically. “Okay!”</p><p>“Will that work?” the father asked.</p><p>“Unless your phone’s camera uses silver it should be fine,” Nabiki said. “Even then, I’ll just be transparent.”</p><p>“How’s that sound, Juria?”</p><p>“Okay!” the girl said. </p><p>Nabiki leaned down next to her, holding her fingers out into a V and doing her best to look as obviously vampiric as she could while still being friendly.</p><p>“Thank you, lady,” the girl said. </p><p>“No problem.” She answered. “Go enjoy the tournament. My sister and her boyfriend are in the tournament. Tendou and Saotome.”</p><p>“We’ll keep an eye out for them, thanks.”</p><p>A few minutes later, Nabiki back to walking through the crowd when another voice called out. “Excuse me.”</p><p>“Not a fighter,” she responded, sighing and trying to press on.</p><p>“What? No, I’m just a little lost,” the voice said. Nabiki turned around to see a tall man with a dingy yellow tunic and camo-pattern headband with a backpack. </p><p>“What are you looking for?” she asked.</p><p>“I’m looking for Shirahama Stadium,” he said, scratching his head and looking down at his phone.</p><p>Nabiki stared at him for several seconds, forgetting to blink.</p><p>“Umm, did you…” the man looked up to meet her eyes. “Oh, you’re still there, I stopped hearing you. Anyway, can you help me?”</p><p>The vampire grabbed his shoulder and turned him around, then pushed his chin and head up at an angle before sweeping her arm broadly at the massive letters proclaiming “Shirahama Stadium” first in Japanese and then in smaller letters, which were probably still ten-feet tall, for English, Spanish, Chinese, Vietnamese, and Korean.</p><p>“Oh,” he said, laughing nervously and scratching his head. “Thanks. I’ll go now.”</p><p>“Registration’s that way,” Nabiki said, pointing the other direction.</p><p>“Right, thanks.”</p><p>“Go with my prayers.” Nabiki clapped her hands together and bowed dramatically.</p><p>Ryouga did a double-take at her, laughed nervously and started off. The vampire watched him go while shaking her head before going to meet the team she'd gathered.</p>
<hr/><p>“Okay,” Nabiki said. “So, let's get to business. As long as Akane and Ranma aren’t fighting at the same time, I’ve got photos and marketing covered.”</p><p>“I’ll keep an eye on schedules to give you and everyone a heads up,” Silke said.</p><p>“I can handle some medical stuff, but you know, anything serious we’ll have to depend on the stadium services,” Megu said. “Because, well I’m a student. I don’t have anything but basic first aid licenses you get in high school.”</p><p>Nabiki turned to look the other four members of the group. “So, thanks for coming first of all. Akane and Ranma will appreciate it. We need to make sure to keep an eye on all the stuff. Megu and I are going to be running around and Silke will be distracted but she’ll be here. So, if we need something, we’ll text for a runner, okay? Now, can we introduce each other?”</p><p>“Hello, I’m from Ranma’s Kinesiology class,” a brown-haired girl said. “Kino Makoto and thanks for the invitiation, I’ve never been in one of these except as audience.”</p><p>“Endo Kenta,” the young man next to her said he waved and adjusted his t-shirt nervously. “You know me already, I was dating Megu.”</p><p>“He’s studying marine biology.” Megu supplied cheerfully.</p><p>Silke opened her mouth but stopped as Nabiki held out her hand and shook it slightly. “It’s too easy.”</p><p>“Anyway, yeah, I’ll be fine to keep an eye on the stuff,” Kenta said.</p><p>“Okay, my turn, I’m from Akane’s English class.” The girl gave a small curtsey and smiled. “But I’m studying agriculture. Just call me Akari, thank you.”</p><p>“I suppose that puts me last,” the white-haired man said. He was a bit older than the rest of them and lounging comfortably. “And I’m just doing a favor. But it’s not like I had anything better to do. I can guard things easy enough. And hey I’ll get pizza later.”</p><p>“Dante, you forgot to say your name.”</p><p>“Right,” he said. “Anyway, I came to discuss the monthly LARP and now I’m here. Surprise.”</p><p>“All right, that’s everybody, now let’s get on with it,” Nabiki said.</p>
<hr/><p>Ranma and Akane stood, ready to head out into stadium as soon as it was called for the participants to enter. Chat was mostly subdued as they all listened for the queue but it had mostly been a friendly atmosphere so far. The atmosphere was broken a little as the doors opened to the back to let in a latecomer.</p><p>“Excuse me, sorry, excuse me.”</p><p>Eyes turned to look as a tall young-man pushed his way forward. Akane looked to Ranma and said under her breath. “There’s always one or two.” </p><p>“Hell, I’ve been there.”</p><p>The Tendou martial artist nodded in response as the new fighter started passing by him. The other young man glanced at Ranma and did a double-take.</p><p>“Do…I know you?” he asked.</p><p>Ranma opened his mouth to say no but then paused. “I don’t know. You’re familiar.”</p><p>“Huh,” Ryouga said before moving on.</p><p>“And now we come to the introduction of tonight’s fighters!” the announcer declared bombastically and moved into calling out names.</p><p>“Saotome Ranma!” He yelled.</p><p>Ranma nodded and started running out into the stadium, not noticing as the latecomer’s back straightened up and his head whipped around to face Ranma. Akane didn’t miss it, however and she eyed the young man cautiously<br/>
“Tendou Akane!” </p><p>Then it was her time to walk out into the arena.</p><p>Ahead of her Ranma turned to look at her and give her a thumbs up which she returned with a photogenic smile. After she got to her place and the cameras were on to the next fighter though, she flashed a sign toward Ranma warning caution and jabbed her thumb back at the waiting area. The Saotome looked at her a little confused.</p><p>“Hibiki Ryouga!”</p><p>Ranma heard the name and took a moment trying to decide where he’d heard it before and then his eyes flashed open wide. He turned to look as the latecomer glowered up at him as he strode up from the entrance. The glare lasted for the entire time that Ryouga walked to his position and further on as the opening ceremony continued. And then it came to an end, people started to drift to their various corners and positions.</p><p>“Saotome Ranma!” A shout roared across the arena, causing motion to freeze. “You better last long enough to face me! I have a score to settle with you.”</p><p>“Umm, dude, we’re not going to be facing each other,” Ranma called back. “And what’s the deal interrupting the opening?”</p><p>“Ha! I knew you were a coward!” Ryouga declared. “And what excuse do you have to weasel out of this fight?”</p><p>“Look up a moment!” Akane called out.</p><p>“What does that have to do with anything?” </p><p>Ryouga asked though he did look up and noted the “Traditional Division” banners flying over the section Ranma was in. The “Freestyle Division” banners flying pretty much exactly over Akane and then looking straight up saw the “Duelist Division” banners over his own head.</p><p>“Oh.” He took a deep breath. “Well, you’d better be in a condition ready to fight at the end of the tournament then! I don’t want a repeat of last time.”</p><p>“That was middle-school!” </p><p>“It doesn’t change the fact that you weren’t there when I came to the fight.”</p><p>“I waited….Ryouga you don’t want me to give more details on that.”</p><p>“Were you or were not gone on when I arrived on the fourth day after the arranged time?”</p><p>“You did it anyway,” Ranma said under his breath. “Dude, I passed out waiting. Then I woke up in the middle of the Sea of Japan on the way to China.”</p><p>Ryouga glanced around and saw all the incredulous looks he was getting. “Look! I’ve had a week and you owe me a fight!”</p><p>“Fine! Just say that next time!”</p><p>Akane glanced over and saw Nabiki materialize next to the fight coordinators and narrowed her eyes in suspicion as she started talking to them. There was a bit of excitement and then the announcer ran back to the microphone.</p><p>“Ladies and gentlemen! We have a special announcement. We’re going to have exhibition mixed matches tonight. Saotome Ranma, Tendou Akane, and Hibiki Ryouga shall all face each other between each round of the tournament. So, enjoy tonight’s entertainment!”</p><p>Akane smacked her face into her palm and shook her head. “Nabiki.”</p>
<hr/><p>“What the hell were you thinking?” Akane asked as Nabiki worked with her camera.</p><p>“It’ll be fine, it’ll be fine,” Nabiki said.</p><p>“You just added another fight to our lists with someone whose style we know nothing about!” her sister said.</p><p>“It’s risk, yeah,” Nabiki said. “But it’s better to look like a publicity stunt than just be some random outburst. Now, I think you have a wannabe Nightcrawler to fight.”</p><p>Akane crossed her arms and shook her head. </p><p>“The hair looks great by the way!” Nabiki said.</p><p>“I’m still not sure about fighting with it down.” Akane fiddled with her hair as she talked. “I put a lot of work into this. And money.”</p><p>“It’ll be fine,” Nabiki said. “It’s a signature look.”</p>
<hr/><p>“Saotome, was that scene rigged in advance?”</p><p>Ranma looked across to his opponent and shook his head as they came in for the pre-fight acknowledgement. “Nah, I haven’t seen him in years. I think like he said, he’s just having a bad week.”</p><p>“Hmph,” the savateur said. “The exhibition thing?”</p><p>“My girlfriend’s sister is a bit…opportunistic.”</p><p>The man blinked and glanced further down the stadium and back to Ranma. “You’re dating Tendou Akane?”</p><p>“Yeah, it’s a recent thing, want to get this started before the refs yell at us?” He nodded sharply back toward the referees.</p><p>“Yeah, let’s get on with this.”</p>
<hr/><p>“And now, for our first intermission exhibition!” the announcer called out. “Tendou Akane versus Hibiki Ryouga! To the center ring and on all screens now!”</p><p>Akane took a breath and walked to the center of the stage, making sure not to bring attention to where her shoulder was still sore from her first match. She came up to Hibiki and shook her head. “You know, you could have waited until after the tournament.”</p><p>“I would have lost track of him again!” Ryouga protested. “How did you get involved in this anyway?”</p><p>“Ranma’s my partner,” she said. “And my sister is the one with the camera over there imitating Spider-Man.”</p><p>She pointed toward where Nabiki was balancing on a wire above the heads of the other photographers and looking through her camera.</p><p>“Oh, she helped me find the stadium.” The other fighter said. “She’s nice.”</p><p>Akane nodded. “Most of the time. Want to get on with this?”</p><p>“Is this a way to make sure Ranma sees how I’ve improved before we fight?”</p><p>“No,” Akane said. “You went off like this was the WWE, they’re going to place the grudge match last. Duh.”</p><p>Ryouga started to protest and then shook his head. “Right. Yeah, that makes sense.”</p><p>They retreated to their starting points and waited for the referee to begin the match. Ryouga opened up charging across the ring with his umbrella leading. Akane ducked and deflected it upward reaching out to grab his shirt and toss him backward. The lost man spun his umbrella open and glided inward back to the ring avoiding an early ring-out as Akane stood below and started pressing pressure points. </p><p>The floating martial artist swung his umbrella again and flipped it closed, letting its weight and gravity give him momentum has he rushed down like a meteor. Akane saw it coming and flipped out of the way landing on her feet and striking two remaining pressure points. </p><p>“Freya.”</p><p>Akane rushed for the crater that held Ryouga at its center. Ryouga dodged aside from one attempted grip, eyeing the visible arcs of electricity along Akane’s hand as it passed his eyes. He spun open his umbrella to force her back and came out into a spinning kick. The Tendou woman reached to grab the kick but under-estimated the sheer force and strength behind it. She found her breath pushed out of her body which was thrown backward. She barely flipped to her feet and spun around to avoid falling out of the ring as she looked across.</p><p>Ryouga was still convulsing a bit but getting back control of his body. Likely there would have been more force if her curse hadn’t interrupted his follow-through. She pushed forward to take advantage of the situation and then dropped to her knees sliding across the floor as the umbrella spun over her head and rolled back into a handstand and on to her feet. A monstrously strong fist lashed out at her as she stood. She blocked it and started to twist that into an arm-bar, but disengaged as her opponent pushed through the waves of electricity flooding through him for a follow up attack. Then the umbrella swept in from the side and she had to deflect it.</p><p>The edge of the red bamboo scraped across her skin and she could smell the blood spilling in the moment before she jumped away to keep the cuts superficial. The umbrella clattered to the ground behind her leaving another dent in the floor of the ring. Moving in she was surprised to find herself dodging what she first thought was a sword until she caught it between her hands and realized it seemed to be made of leather. At least judging by the slight smell of burning she picked up after a moment between her hands.</p><p>Akane thrust forward with a kick as Ryouga ripped his weapon out of her hands. She pulled her hands apart but still felt a sting and shook her hands out. The leather blade came in again and this time she sent it spinning upward into the heights of the stadium. Her foot hooked around, touching her bare ankle to the back of his neck as she grabbed his hand and brought them both down to the ground with Ryouga in a lock and visible electricity moving up and down his body.</p><p>Gritting his teeth, Ryouga pushed his free hand under his body, trying to hold it steady enough to plant on the ring and then shove, sending both him and Akane into the air. The Tendou martial artist looked up and saw the spinning leather blade descending toward them and released the hold to push away. A thunderous clap accompanied the motion, sending both opponents flying through the air to land in the rings flanking the center.</p><p>“Draw by ring out!” the referee declared through a microphone.</p><p>The announcer stepped into the middle of the ring around the damage from that and previous matches. “Okay, ladies and gentlemen, the next matches have been decided and should be going up shortly. In the meantime, enjoy intermission while we repair the rings and get ready for the next round.”</p><p>Akane stood up and warned off the approaching medics and started working on sealing her curse off again. Across the stadium she saw Ryouga dusting himself off waved a small salute to him which he returned. She started walking off toward where Silke was standing with Nabiki’s ‘reinforcements’ and grabbed a water bottle from Ranma.</p><p>“That was a good fight,” he said.</p><p>“That guy is really strong,” she said, nodding. “And I’m suspecting lacks a sense of pain. He might be tough for you.”</p><p>“That’s good. I’d hate to have a bad fight after that.”</p><p>“Speaking of. We’re next up next round.” Akane jabbed a finger into his chest. “We both owe each other a full fight without holding back.”</p><p>“Yeah, I get to spend a whole minute trying not to let you touch me,” Ranma said, leaning in to kiss her.</p><p>“Hey.” They turned to see Ryouga working his way towards them. “That was a good fight.”</p><p>“Yeah it…” Akane paused. “Excuse me, weren’t you over there, on the other side of the stadium before?”</p><p>“Uhhh, I tried to meet you where you landed.”</p><p>“You..saw me walk away from there, I waved to you.”</p><p>Akari slipped forward with a water bottle and a smile. “Hello, umm, would you like a bottle of water, Mr. Hibiki?” </p><p>“Thanks.” Ryouga said, turning to face her and take the water bottle. “Ummm…”</p><p>“Akari, I’m a classmate of Akane’s,” she said.</p><p>“Anyway, good fight. Next, Ranma, we’ll finally get the fight you should have stayed for all those years ago.”</p><p>“Just don’t get lost between now and then.” Akane looked to her boyfriend and rolled her eyes.</p><p>“Listen, Ranma!” Ryouga said loudly. “I’m going to crush you just like this…”</p><p>Akane and Ranma watched as he threw open the water bottle and started to swing his umbrella around towards it. They both widened their eyes and started to reach out, yelling for him to stop.</p><p>“Hey! Mana of the gods everybody.” </p><p>Dante walked up to the situation, oblivious, and then several things happened. Akari dodged back, throwing her hands up and slammed into Dante’s stomach. The open pizza box over Dante’s head flew up into the air, scattering food in all directions. The water bottle was then sliced open, the water splashing off Ryouga’s umbrella. Ranma tried to block the water from reaching Akane, but then his hair changed color and body shifted sexes leaving him too short to block it all. Akane covered her face and then convulsed as the water touched her and even her sealed curse started short-circuiting, in this case also setting fire to the pizza in her hair. </p><p>“Put it out! Put it out!”</p><p>Ryouga’s mouth was frozen open he saw the fire spreading to more of Akane’s hair and reached over to grab another water bottle, until he was tackled by Megu and Makoto both shouting. “Not more water!” </p><p>Silke rushed over with a pair of towels, tossing one to Ranma and then the both of them started working to suffocate the fire until they were left with a few charred rags and rather steamed Akane. Ryouga, Megu and Makoto disentangled themselves and the umbrella-wielding fighter sheepishly stared across at a terrifying vision framed by a haze of smoke that had just recently been hair and pizza.</p><p>“Uhh…sorry…I didn’t…”</p><p>Akane held her hand out sharply and he stopped immediately. She eyed Dante and Ryouga both “Six years. Twenty. Five. Thousand. Yen. A. Month. Half a day. In the chair. Doing nothing. Nothing! At a time. Ninety minutes regular care. Morning and Evening. Every. Fucking. Day.”</p><p>“Uh…”</p><p>“Ranma! Scissors. Locker room.”</p><p>Akane turned on her heels and stalked off, the crowds parting ahead of her as Ranma grabbed a pair of scissors being offered to him by Megu from the first aid kit. Ahead of them Nabiki was approaching and looked up from her camera to wave. </p><p>“Hey, got some great…shots.” </p><p>“It’ll be fine. It’s signature.”</p><p>Nabiki stepped widely aside and let Akane and Ranma pass before reaching the supplies and their friends. “What the hell happened?”</p><p>“I am so glad I already had my fight with her.” Ryouga said.</p><p>“So,” Dante said, cupping his chin. “Your sisters are probably going to kill me. And the pizza is ruined.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Okay, so a couple of things here. The way the Japanese organize lists and such is basically alphabetical order but, given their symbols aren't organized the way our alphabet is, they go in different orders. I'd have to dig out one of my language books to remember the order of some supplemental things like ya/yu/yo or ga/gi/gu/ge/go, but fortunately, all the names I was working with have starting kana on the basic chart. The order of names would be:</p><p>a/i/u/e/o<br/>ka/ki/ku/ke/ko<br/>sa/shi/su/se/so<br/>ta/chi/tsu/te/to<br/>na/ni/nu/ne/no<br/>ha/hi/fu/he/ho</p><p>And this is why the names were called in the order "Saotome" "Tendou" and "Hibiki" This did actually affect the sequencing of when people found out who was who and why I chose to have Hibiki stew a bit and then do his outbreak. Which works a bit better for him being at least somewhat more mature anyway.</p><p>Also, dealing with GPS programs has given me so much understanding of Ryouga's problems.</p><p>On the little girl named Juria. In America we've had a few years of some people complaining about the "weird" (unconventional would be a better term but most people will say "weird") names some people give their kids or spelling names in weird ways such as spelling a name that sounds like Kevin as "Chevyn" or something similar. Well, apparently, a similar phenomenon is going on in Japan where young parents are giving what some of my coworkers from when I lived there described as "nonsense" names to their kids. This isn't to say that the Japanese think much more about what their name "means" anymore than we do, but they still notice when kids are named for sound effects, English names, or a kanji meaning "yellow bear" and pronounced as "Pooh" because "Winnie the Pooh" is popular for the last few years. I saw Juria on a random name generator I was using because I was lazy and thought about that and just went with it.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. A Contact List Started</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Two more fights and a couple of revelations.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Welcome back everybody!” the announcer called out. “I hope you’ve refreshed yourself and gotten drinks for the next round, because we’re getting ready to start!”</p><p>Ranma walked to Megu and handed her the scissors. “Here you go, I’ve got second fight so I’ve got to go.”</p><p>“Nabiki is already at the ring to get pics for when Akane has her fight,” Megu asked. “How bad is she?”</p><p>“In the south ring, Tendou Akane,” the announcer called out. “Fighting Oka the Squid!”</p><p>“Just...watch.” Ranma gestured toward the ring, sweat running down his forehead, and then headed toward the north side of the arena. </p><p>The pit crew turned to look at the south ring as the fight started and winced as the first jet of water washed over Akane before she could even unseal her curse, but the angry woman pushed through the spray with gritted teeth and reached out to grab her opponent’s fighting togs. </p><p>Silke winced as the water-user was slammed into the ring and tried scurry free, only to have his shoulder winched painfully. She squeezed her eyes closed and watched as Akane slammed her forward into her opponent dazing him while the Tendou woman applied her pressure points. </p><p>“I’m…going to get the burn ointment and bandages and go down to meet her,” Megu said.</p><p>“I’m sure that guy has his own medical crew.” Silke assured her.</p><p>“It's for Akane. Using that isn’t pain free.”</p><p>“Oh, that can’t help her mood.”</p><p>Oka recovered and leaped away, lashing out with a manifested wave and Akane braced herself as the water touched her now unsealed body and most of the cameras briefly washed out as lightning erupted throughout the water. Oka was blasted back and unluckily slammed into one of the pillars marking the edge of the ring, falling back into the ring. </p><p>“Ro…Roll out!” Kenta shouted and then winced as Akane reached her opponent. “Oh, she got him.”</p><p>Akari looked down at the fried squid package in her hand and wrapped the plastic around it. </p><p>“Can I have that?” Dante asked pointing at the squid and then chuckled as Oka’s body flew across the ring into another pillar.</p>
<hr/><p>“Why the hell did you set her hair on fire?” </p><p>Ryouga turned to the other fighter and shook his head. “I didn’t mean to. I was being intimidating at Ranma! I didn’t know there’d be pizza or electrical shock.”</p><p>“Uh huh.” His opponent swung his axes around. “If you pull that poor loser crap with me, I’ll wrap that umbrella around your head.”</p><p>“It was an accident,” Ryouga protested. “Let’s just get on with it.”</p>
<hr/><p>“It didn’t dislocate,” Megu said, prodding at Ranma’s shoulder. “I don’t think anything broke. Maybe some deep bruising. The way you fighting guys heal you should be fine…I think.”</p><p>“That’s pretty lucky coming out of a Muay Thai fight,” Ranma said. “Thanks.”</p><p>He walked over and sat down on the bench by Akane and looked at the bandages that were wrapped about in places across her body.</p><p>“You had to goad him,” Akane said, looking at him through narrow eyes.</p><p>“I wasn’t goading him. He got lost on the way to the vacant lot behind his house.” Ranma protested. “I was seriously warning him not to get lost. Again.”</p><p>“You’re kidding, right?”</p><p>Ranma shook his head. “No, I’m not. Turn around.”</p><p>The Tendou woman shook her head in disbelief and twisted about to sit astride the bench as Ranma sat behind her and sighed as Ranma’s hands started massaging her shoulders and neck. He looked toward the shoulder length remains of her hair, some of it still showing scorched ends. </p><p>“It’s going to have to be a lot shorter, isn’t it?” Akane didn’t wait for Ranma to answer. “Fuck. I’ll have to do something with it.”</p><p>“I’d give you the dragon whisker if it worked on women.” Ranma said. “But then you’d just keep growing hair until your follicles died…so maybe not.”</p><p>“It’s a nice thought anyway. How are you doing?”</p><p>“Two wins,” he said. “You?”</p><p>“And the draw with Ryouga. If I could do that fight again.”</p><p>Ranma looked up and over to the other rings as he shifted to massaging Akane’s left side. “We have about fifteen minutes.”</p><p>“I am going to give you such a beating.” Under her closed eyes she smiled.</p><p>“You have to catch me first.” Ranma responded.</p><p>“Excuse me, Akane.” The martial artist cracked her eyes opened and looked over at Akari.</p><p>“Hmm?”</p><p>“That…person, Hibiki Ryouga,” she looked left and right. “How do you and Ranma know him?”</p><p>“That’s all Ranma, ask him.”</p><p>“Oh.”</p><p>“We went to the same middle-school, I used to always get the last bread at lunch and I was a bit of a snot about it and we planned to have a duel to settle it…but, well he gets lost really easy and I can’t stay awake forever.”</p><p>“So, what kind of guy is he?”</p><p>“It’s been eight years since I was hanging around him all the time,” Ranma said as he moved to Akane’s other side. “I don’t know what he’s like now. But he used to be really emotional.”</p><p>“Used to?” Akane said. "But he could just be having a bad day I guess."</p><p>”Oh, uh, well, maybe we should make sure he doesn’t get lost before the second fight.” Akari looked back over her shoulder then back at the two martial artists. “I’ll be right back.”</p><p>“Good luck.” Ranma said.</p>
<hr/><p>Ryouga sat watching the remaining fights and tried to ignore the growing pressure he was feeling. Right now, he was within sight of where the tournament was going on and there wasn’t much chance of him losing track of it. But he’d miscalculated certain biological processes. It was a bit of a tickle right now, but that was always just the start of things. Maybe he should risk going right now. He likely had time between the remaining fights and the intermission to get back in time for his next fight. Or could end up in Hokkaido.</p><p>“Hello, Mr. Hibiki.”</p><p>He flinched a bit and looked toward the source of the voice and slowly settled back down. “Weren’t you over at Ranma and Akane’s pit?”</p><p>“Oh yes, I told you I was a classmate of Akane’s and her sister asked me to help out when I came over for a study session.”</p><p>“Okay,” Ryouga said. “Can I help you? Are you here to cover me in boiling oil?”</p><p>“Oh, no, no!” Akari said laughing and then turned momentarily serious. “Akane might though.” Her cheerful expression returned. “Anyway, I understand you…uhh…” she remembered his reaction to his sense of direction being mentioned before “…I came to help you out so you can make sure to get to all your fights on time.”</p><p>“I don’t need…” Ryouga stopped as he shifted uncomfortably. “Errr.”</p><p>Akari watched the motion and continued talking at a slower, more hesitant, pace. “If you want I can help clear a path for you to the restroom.”</p><p>Ryouga furrowed his eyebrow and tried unsuccessfully not to squirm. “Yeah, that would be a help.”</p><p>“All right then,” she said, grabbing hold of his hand. “Here we go.” She released a long, shrill whistle, causing several of the fighters and their crews to wince. “Please make way. Thank you.”</p><p>They started to travel through the crowd with Akari occasionally bringing her fingers to her mouth and repeating the whistle leading out into the areas surrounding the actual arena until they reached the door to the men’s room. Ryouga looked down at the woman holding his hand and blushed furiously as people stared at him. </p><p>“All right, I’ll wait right outside here for you Mr. Hibiki,” Akari said cheerfully.</p><p>“Right, thank you.” He said and quickly moved inside to take care of business.</p><p>Outside, Akari smiled and hummed to herself. An older woman paused and looked to her, smiling pleasantly. “Oh, hello there dear, are you waiting for someone?”</p><p>“Yes, I…” Akari paused at the sound of a clatter from inside the restroom accompanied by some faint profanity. The older woman looked to the door and tsked, shaking her head. </p><p>“Such foul language some people use these days. So, is it your little brother then?”</p><p>“No, actually. I…” </p><p>The door opened revealing that the supplies closet across the bathroom had been opened and several things had spilled across the floor, though it looked like someone had tried to put several things back in.</p><p>“All, right, I’m done,” Ryouga said.</p><p>“Okay, Mr. Hibiki,” Akari said before turning toward the older woman. “I’m just helping one of the fighters get around the stadium, he’s not been here before.”</p><p>“I fought here two years ago…” Ryouga started to say before Akari kicked his foot and immediately regretted as she felt the impact. “What the?”</p><p>“Oh, I understand, you have a good luck in the ring then,” the old woman said before continuing onward and shaking her head. “Too many blows to the head I reckon.”</p><p>“Okay, shall I…” Akari started to reach for his hand and bring her other hand to her mouth.</p><p>“Wait, wait,” Ryouga said. “Maybe just tell me which way to turn? I’m not a kid.”</p><p>Akari relaxed and thought about it a moment. “Sorry, I’m getting a bit over-enthused. Yeah, okay, I can do that. After you, Mr. Hibiki.”</p><p>“Thank you,” Ryouga said and started walking.</p><p>Immediately Akari’s eyes went wide and she dashed to cut ahead of him, spreading her body across the door. “That’s the ladies’ restroom, Mr. Hibiki.”</p><p>“Uhhh, yeah…uh…okay, this way then.”</p><p>Akari breathed a sigh of relief and relaxed until she looked back up and saw Ryouga heading to the exit. “Not that way, Mr. Hibiki!”</p>
<hr/><p>“And now, ladies and gentlemen,” the announcer called out. “We give you our second exhibition mixed match. Saotome Ranma vs Tendou Akane! Center ring again.”</p><p>Akane and Ranma walked up onto the ring with Akane looking to face Ranma. “You give me any breaks I am going to be pissed. I’m already pissed, I need to be pissed off more.”</p><p>“Well, hey, I might want to let you get that technique off,” Ranma said. “I don’t want it easy either.”</p><p>“Nope, nope, I’m not allowed to do it before the match starts so don’t give me extra time. If you give me time to trigger it, I will absolutely stand there until we time out, got it?”</p><p>Ranma raised his hands and nodded. “I got it. I got it.”</p><p>“Ready,” the referee asked as he watched them go to their corners. “Fight!”</p><p>Ranma surged forward, lashing out with a flurry of blows. Akane blocked one and twisted Ranma into a throw, but not without some of the strikes landing. She twisted to watch him flying through the air and flipping to redirect his momentum and prevent a ring out, as he did so she started the process of unleashing Freya. </p><p>The Tendou martial artist wasn’t even half finished before Ranma was back and swinging a foot in a wide kick that forced her to duck and interrupt her move. She combined the avoidance into a spin and forced Ranma to flip over her sweep to avoid falling and swiftly worked in a couple more steps to her unsealing. He grabbed her wrists and tried to twist them back. Akane wrenched her arms forward, forcing one free enough to allow her to reverse the grapple. The two turned to face each other, Ranma holding one of Akane’s wrists and Akane holding one of Ranma’s.</p>
<hr/><p>Akari took in a deep breath as she watched Ryouga walking in roughly the right direction. They were passing by as some of the stadium staff were wheeling an over-stacked dolly toward one of the restaurant booths. One of the wheels bumped over an open fixture in the floor causing the boxes to shift and begin to topple. She scrunched up and closed her eyes and opened them to see Ryouga standing over her, precariously holding the boxes from continuing the fall.</p><p>“Umm, this is kind of awkward.” He said.</p><p>“Oh, thank goodness, that’s a lot of the specialty souvenir mugs.” The worker said. “We’d be in deep if they were broken.”</p><p>The perpetually lost martial artist blinked and wondered why they had been stacked so badly if that were the case. </p><p>“Think you can help us get the rest of them back? We’re in a hurry here.”</p><p>“Uhh, sure, I think we have time.” Ryouga said.</p><p>Akari reached into her pocket and shrugged. “I don’t see a problem with it.”</p><p>A short time later and the boxes had been dropped off in the restaurant.</p><p>“Okay then, Mr. Hibiki, we should…” Akari blinked and looked toward where Ryouga was walking through the door on the other side of the booth from where they had come in. “WAIT!”</p>
<hr/><p>Ranma felt Akane twist his arm to pull him forward and barely shifted his head to avoid taking her forehead to his face. He narrowed his one hand to pull it out of her grasp and released her hand. Immediately, she started punching pressure points and he lashed out with a knife hand to force her to block. She pushed it aside and thrust her palm out to his chest, forcing him backward. He gasped hard and recovered his breath quickly and darting in with a series of circle kicks that Akane weathered.</p><p>“Freya.” Ranma immediately leaped back away and hesitated as he saw Akane still pushing pressure points and then opening her lightning filled eyes and saying. “Freya. For real this time.”</p><p>Chuckling at the trick, Ranma dodged an attempt to grab him, slipping around behind her back and spinning into a hard kick.</p>
<hr/><p>“It has to be around here somewhere.” Ryouga said, scratching his head and around. </p><p>The sound of running feet pulling to a stop and then heavy breathing brought his attention to look at Akari, leaning onto her own knees and catching her breath.</p><p>“Mr. Hibiki…what…are you doing…in the parking lot?”</p><p>“Parking lot? I thought this was the arena with all the high ceilings.”</p><p>“What ceiling?” Akari asked, gesturing upward toward the blue sky.</p><p>“Umm…oh.”</p><p>The honking of a car horn and a man angrily shouting for them to “get out of the way!” Brought attention to an oversized American muscle-car splattered with bright pink paint speeding through the lot at an angle. The driver didn’t seem interested in actually using the brakes and despite immediately running, she wasn’t thinking she was going to get to safety. And then she was snatched up into the sky and holding tightly to Ryouga as they floated down on his umbrella.</p><p>Ryouga let her cling immodestly to him while reaching up to his headband and grimly tossing several lengths of cloth downward. The bits of cloth flashed across the lot, slashing into the car’s tires and three of them to blow out almost simultaneously, sending the car into a spin-out.</p><p>As the two drifted to the ground, a pair of police officers ran up to them and gestured toward the car. </p><p>“Excuse me, sir, may I have your name?” The one in the rumpled army coat asked.</p><p>“Err, Hibiki Ryouga.”</p><p>The other in the black suit started writing in the notes. “And did you think about how you might cause a dangerous crash?”</p><p>“But he was driving dangerously.” Akari protested. “Where were you?”</p><p>The one in the dark suit pointed toward the police car coming into the lot from where the muscle-car had been trying to run too while the other pointed to the cars coming into the lot from the direction the car had traveled. And then both pointed up toward the helicopter.</p><p>“Do you have a few minutes to speak to us?”</p><p>“Uh…maybe?”</p><p>“Hey, Onda.” The police officer in the rumpled army coat asked. “Is maybe a good answer?”</p><p>“I don’t think so, Aoshima.”</p><p>“We don’t think maybe’s a good answer.”</p>
<hr/><p>The impact with Akane’s head sent a shock of numbing electricity through his body, but he’d been expecting and kept the follow through, sending her stumbling a few steps aside. What he didn’t expect is how badly it would numb his leg leaving him down one limb when trying to avoid Akane’s offensive. He winced as she almost caught hold and the electricity jumped from her to him. He gave ground, putting distance between her and him. </p><p>Akane followed hid the winces that came from the exaggerated electrical discharges flashing through her skin, but it was less of a problem for her than for Ranma. She closed and watched for signs of which way he’d break. She reached out to grab him and punched outward toward his chest. With Ranma focused on defense it was hard to make a solid contact, but she was getting close enough to shock him. And then he rolled aside her and back out into the center of the ring, passing by the side and ripping down the canvas banners to wrap around his fists.</p>
<hr/><p>“All right, thank you sir. We’ll contact you if we need to speak to you again.”</p><p>“So, I’m not in trouble?” Ryouga asked.</p><p>“For what? Did you see anything he could have done to get in trouble? Onda?”</p><p>“Nope, who would believe bits of cloth causing tires to explode, Aoshima?”</p><p>“Yes, it’s totally silly. Obviously never happened. Clearly the speeder’s driving damaged the tires.”</p><p>“Especially not after the initial life and death event had been resolved.”</p><p>“And it’s certainly not going to happen again. Is it?”</p><p>Akari and Ryouga vigorously shook their heads. </p><p>“Now, if you need to go, you can.”</p><p>“Need to…” Akari paused. “Oh no! Mr. Hibiki! The next round.”</p><p>Without waiting for Ryouga to protest she grabbed his hand and beelined for the stadium.</p>
<hr/><p>The Saotome fighter struck several times in the blink of an eye, he felt impact through Akane’s blocks three times and less of the lightning lashed into his body. He dodged aside before she could get a firm grasp on him, hopping over a hooking foot. Akane kept close on him as he avoided her and aimed out to strike her through her own clothing. They whipped back and forth across the mat looking like some sort of laser-light show dancers on fast-forward. He twisted into a corkscrew, trying to bring his heel down on to her and just failed to notice the fist slashing upward before it slammed into his stomach.</p><p>Ranma’s body convulsed and skidded across the mat as Akane collapsed in place. There was a moment of silence as the crowd watched and then the referee stepped forward. “Draw by simultaneous knockout.”<br/>
Immediately, the medics were coming into the ring. Megu wasn’t far behind but stopped as the paramedic warned her off. </p><p>“Uh, you don’t want to touch Akane until she wakes up.” As she spoke, one of the medics reached down and then was blasted back and lay stunned and dizzy. “Because of that.”</p><p>“Let me through,” Makoto said, pushing through and reaching out to check Akane over. Everyone called out for her to stop but then she touched Akane…and nothing happened. “Okay, uh, I…I just have basic first aid, what do I do?”</p><p>“Moment,” Akane said, groggily coming too. “I got it.” She started slowly sealing her curse again.</p><p>Across the mat, Ranma was also coming too and waiting for his muscles to respond to his desires again. A small barrage of questions later and both martial artists were standing up and walking to the edge of the map. Akane reached over as she came within reach of Ranma and grabbed his shirt to pull him in and give him a firm kiss, prompting a scattered applause from the people still in the stands. As it appeared on the screens in the outer parts of the stadium there were a few more scattered cheers.</p><p>“Good fight,” Akane said, taking hold of Ranma’s hand as both walked stiffly toward where everybody else was sitting.</p><p>“Please, please, please,” Nabiki said as she was scanning through her camera. “Oh, thank you. Got that kiss.”</p><p>“Are you two good for the next round?” Silke asked as they laid down next to the benches.</p><p>“We’ll be fine.” Ranma said.</p><p>“Yeah, we just about started this round, so our next fight would have to be.”</p><p>“Ranma’s up first. And you’re up second.”</p><p>There was a pair of groans followed by a rather tired looking Akari stumbling to the bench and plopping down on it. “Okay, when’s Akane and Ranma’s fight?”</p><p>“It ended,” Kenta said. “Where’ve you been?”</p><p>Akari opened her mouth and then shut it. “I don’t know anymore.”</p>
<hr/><p>Ranma didn’t even listen as the announcer started calling for the exhibition match at the end of the third round. Instead he focused on moving his arms to see if Akane’s acupuncture and Megu’s wraps were holding up after his fight with that Snake-style kung fu practitioner. Everything seemed to be…functional…enough, so he took a breath and looked up.</p><p>“All right, Ryouga, let’s…” He blinked at the lack of an opponent and slumped. “Not this again.”</p><p>“Oh, damn it! Ranma, how dare you run away again!” </p><p>Ranma’s and the camera’s attention rotated toward the north ring where Ryouga was standing and fuming. A moment later, Akari walked out onto the mat, grabbed Ryouga’s hand and dragged him toward the center ring and set him in front of Ranma before wordlessly and wearily walking back to the Saotome-Tendou pit. Ryouga blushed and scratched the back of his head.</p><p>“I…uh…had the wrong ring.”</p><p>“We noticed.” Ranma said. “Are you ready?”</p><p>“Let’s do this!”</p><p>Both started to move until the referee cleared his throat and then they were stumbling awkwardly and running into each other.</p><p>“Sorry, ref.” Ranma said quickly and turning back to his position. </p><p>“Excuse us.” Ryouga said, laughing nervously.</p><p>“Our fighters are a little eager,” the announcer called out.</p><p>“Ready!” the ref asked. “Fight!”</p><p>Ryouga charged forward stabbing with his umbrella as Ranma rolled out of the way, churning up chunks of the ring as they went. The Saotome martial artist leaped away and bounced off the edge-marking pillar back to the center of the ring. Ryouga whipped around to send his umbrella spinning towards his opponent and watched as Ranma flipped up over and landed on.</p><p>The duelist grumbled and ran after his umbrella, tossing a handful of bandanas ahead of his approach. Ranma dodged the projectiles by falling off the umbrella grabbed a wire underneath and flipped back on top of it just as Ryouga also landed atop the spinning tool with him. The two martial artists started running in place as they exchanged punches and the occasional fist atop the umbrella as it spun through the arena.</p>
<hr/><p>Akane watched Ranma and Akane pass over the Saotome-Tendou pit and shook her head before cupping her hands around her mouth and shouting “Show offs!”</p><p>“Says the woman who single-handled burned out…” Silke started flipping through a small collection of papers “…seven camera lenses in the stadium earlier with one lightning flash.”</p><p>“And there was the lighting arrangement from this round when she fought the cyborg.” Megu pointed out as Akane slumped.</p><p>“Oh, don’t worry.” Silke said. “The tournament has insurance for this stuff.”</p><p>“Have you thought about getting more training with your lightning?” Makoto asked. “I….uh…might know someone...a friend... who could help.”</p><p>Silke, Megu, Dante, and Kenta turned to look at her. "We all saw you just touch her without problem, you know."</p><p>"Yeah, I came to being held by you while my curse was unsealed."</p><p>"Well...so you know my friend's training will help then."</p>
<hr/><p>Ranma saw the umbrella starting to lose steam and leaped away with Ryouga following. The traditional fighter was getting blows through, but Ryouga seemed to be simply shrugging them off. They landed in the ring and Ranma immediately swept his leg around catching Ryouga as he landed and sending him falling roughly to the ground but the nomad rolled back to his feet before any real advantage could be had. </p><p>The black belt around Ryouga’s waist whipped out and Ryouga started swinging it like a sword, catching Ranma momentarily by surprise and cutting a line across his stomach. The faster martial artist side-stepped the slashes slipped back into a cartwheel, knocking the leather sword out Ryouga’s hand, bringing the two back to an exchange of fast punches.</p><p>Ranma landed a knuckle strike into Ryouga’s ribs and whipped around to strike a knife-hand to his temple but was then felt an elbow smash into his side. He retreated to the pillar and took stance as Ryouga leaped across the ring in a flying kick. Dodging underneath the kick, Ranma dodged aside as the pillar took the impact and smashed down on his opponent, only for Ryouga to catch and roughly toss the mostly decorative structure aside.</p><p>Watching the pillar rise into the air, Ranma leaped up, bounced off another pillar and landed atop the flying masonry, running down it at speed and launching forward into a diving kick. Below him Ryouga was chambering a punch ready to meet him as the two rushed toward each other.</p><p>“Time!”</p><p>And both suddenly turned frantically to cancel their actions, Ranma flipping back as Ryouga stumbled about to recover his balance.</p><p>The referee turned to the videos and started conferring with other officials as Ryouga and Ranma started walking up to each other.</p><p>“Good fight.”</p><p>“Yeah, finally. Now we can finally see who…”</p><p>“Draw by points!”</p><p>“Well…good fight anyway. Good luck on the rest of the tournament.”</p><p>“God, round robins are brutal but it’s good for getting the matches on record.”</p><p>“Yeah, monster bounties are good, but I’d like be able to get into bigger fight purses.”</p><p>“I know exactly what you’re talking about.”</p><p>“Wouldn’t it be funny if these two draws screwed up our ratios enough to keep us from ranking?”</p><p>Both of them thought about it a moment and then turned around. “I should go check my stats. Good luck on the rest of your fights.”</p><p>“Yeah. You too, man.”</p><p>"Now kiss!" someone shouted from the audience. Ranma facepalmed while Ryouga just looked confused.</p>
<hr/><p>Nabiki plopped down next to Akane and sighed. “Oh god we dodged a bullet.”</p><p>“What, how?”</p><p>“I almost convinced them to count the exhibition matches to your totals,” Nabiki said. “But the officials wouldn’t back down.”</p><p>“So…these fights that you got us into, don’t even count for us?”</p><p>“They’re good publicity.”</p><p>“What does that get us?”</p><p>“Money and merchandizing.” Silke called out. And Nabiki pointed toward her, nodding.</p><p>“And it’s two draws each that aren’t on your record.”</p><p>Ranma made his way back to the pit and Silke came forward with the schedule.</p><p>“All right, here are the next round fights. You’ve both won all your fights, so looks like things are getting tougher…”</p>
<hr/><p>Ryouga was looking down at his phone and scratching his head as he looked at it. “Now which way was it?”</p><p>“Excuse me, Mr. Hibiki!” </p><p>He looked up and saw that woman that had been helping get around earlier running up to him. “Uh, Akari, right?”</p><p>“Yes…uh, so I’m trying to be proper about this, but um… well…can I borrow your phone a moment?”</p><p>“Oh, sure,” he said, handing it over.</p><p>Akari looked at it and wondered what plans Ryouga had in Kyoto before exiting out and getting into the contacts and typing her information in. “Here you go. If you need any help getting around when you’re in Tokyo finding tournaments, restaurants, hotel rooms, bars, whatever, you can call me now.”</p><p>“Oh, okay.” The martial artist said hesitantly.</p><p>“Do you get what I’m saying?”</p><p>“You want to help me get around?”</p><p>“No…” Akari stopped, closed her eyes. “Yes. I’d like to see more of you. You know, socially.”</p><p>Ryouga opened his mouth and stopped, turning beet red. “Are you asking me on a date?”</p><p>“Yes! That’s it exactly! So call me later, okay?” Then she waved and walked away as Ryouga looked down at his phone and the almost empty contacts list now populated by Akari’s name.</p><p>“Oh….uh…that’s why everybody calls it a phone instead of a map. Right.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>At this point only one character actually has what most people consider a "special move". Ryouga's weapon techniques come close (a friend points out that iron cloth stuff is super common in fiction), but he and Ranma mostly just have leaned hard into mastering fundamentals which, honestly, is what real life martial arts is mostly about. Akane's "Freya" meanwhile is really, really slow the way I've envisioned it. And at this point, I'm having her over-use it, because it's fun and having her focus on it slows her down from introducing opponents to the hell that is a specialist in holds, locks, and grappling. Since most of Ranma's specials comes from his interactions with the Amazons, I'm planning for there to still be some conflict there.</p><p>I was wavering on whether or not to have Akari be so bold in this. She's a character I'm not too familiar with and so I'm likely out of character for her. I decided that she's trying to be proper, hence "Mr. Hibiki" but is still a lot more casual and direct than might be called "proper". </p><p>Also, I've learned that Bayside Shakedown: The Movie 2 (the movie I pulled Aoshima and Onda from) is one of the record earning Japanese movies. It might still hold the record despite being from 2003. It's the only part of the franchise (I picked up a DVD copy while living in Korea) I've seen and I am absolutely sure that my Aoshima and Onda are somewhat different in character, but it was still a fun movie.</p><p>I was tempted to have Ryouga get lost for the last fight or go ahead with the dumb joke of the draws ruining the ranking of all three, but in the end, I just decided to nod in that direction but not actually do it.</p><p>Now...next chapter I already have in mind. We'll see how it goes. (I should say I have two ideas for next chapter and basically it's a matter do X idea now or later.)</p><p>I considered having Ryouga and Akari's adventures mostly off-camera and left to imagination and almost did a lazy "Ryouga gets lost because of course he does." But I tend to feel it's more funny if Ryouga's issues with getting lost were due to him being really bad at paying attention and being more than a bit stubborn, hence why its worse when he's emotional. So, instead, I threw a couple of situations to distract him with helping out or other such things and then him just wandering in random direction when situation was over.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Skip a Beat</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Some curses are magical, some are neurochemical.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Ranma looked at the gown as the attendant put it back up on the rack and sighed before walking away. She typed into her phone while crossing the street and attaching a photo to the message.</p><p>/Should I get it?/</p><p>Akane responded a moment later. /Why not? It looks nice?/</p><p>/One splash of cold water and I’ll be stepping all over and ruining it./</p><p>/Yeah, one splash of hot-water would have you tearing most of the masc stuff for your female body./</p><p>/Hot-water doesn’t come out of nowhere as often. And I’ve yet to find a binder I don’t trust not to crush my ribs if I do change while wearing it./</p><p>/Just having it is probably better than moping over it./</p><p>/I’ll think about it./ </p><p>Akane returned with an animated hugging emoji and then Ranma put the phone back in her pocket. Which was when the car drove by, tire pushing into a puddle and spraying Ranma. She sighed as her perspective shifted and she shook as much of the water off as possible.</p><p>“At least my inside and outside match right now.” She passed the staring onlookers and up to the ice-cream vendor. “One scoop vanilla, one scoop chocolate please.”</p><p>A few minutes later she was walking through one of the narrow passages of the neighborhood.</p><p>“Where do you think you’re going?”</p><p>“Let me through, I have things that must be done today. Is it possible that I know you?” The voice sounded nervous but was trying to hide it.</p><p>“Oh yeah, you know us.”</p><p>Ranma hopped up to the top of fence and looked over the scene where several young women mostly wielding what looked like bowling pins and maybe a hula hoop surrounded another with long, fluffy black hair with long legs and a killer dress.</p><p>“Thanks to you, Captain, our gymnastics club was shut down!” one of the girls snapped.</p><p>“I lost my scholarship over your antics!”</p><p>“We’re not going to let you ruin our university careers too!”</p><p>“Stay where you belong, you witch!”</p><p>Ranma was considering moving in to help when the fight started but held back as the seeming victim started moving. She passed gracefully through the center of the hula hoop as it was tossed at her, not even interrupting its passage as it sliced into tree further down the lot. Then she cartwheeled past several attempts to club her. Her opponents weren’t slacking for grace and a random passerby at this point might have mistaken the whole thing for some sort of dance practice. Though they moved like molasses compared to their target.</p><p>Then the target dropped her bag and drew a ribbon out of it. In a flash she moved from defense to offense and started whipping through the attacking women, forcing them to drop weapons and back away from their target.</p><p>“You…insolents!” the ribbon-wielding woman declared. “How dare you! How. Dare you! Well I shall teach you what it is to stand against me!”</p><p>The other women had clearly lost all control as their target started lashing out with abandon, voice rising in a screeching laugh that held no small amount of rage and as it built, her grace was dwindling into just frenetic motion.<br/>
Ranma finished her ice cream and leaped in, grabbing the ribbon out of the air and landing in front of the intended target. She held out a hand and standing away from the collection of would be attackers to avoid associating herself with them. “Whoa. You’ve got them beat. Take a breath.”</p><p>The other woman took several deep breaths and eyed Ranma closely. “You stopped my ribbon. No one’s ever done that.”</p><p>“I can believe that.” Ranma said. “You’ve got grace in spades. Don’t let jerks goad you into losing that.”</p><p>The other woman breathed deeply and slowly, closing her eyes before glancing over and lashing out with her ribbon to snatch her bag from where it lay. One of the defeated women yelped and danced away from it moving into a defensive stance. </p><p>“Stay away from that!” She turned to Ranma. “You have my thanks. I am Kodachi, also known as the Black Rose.”</p><p>“Saotome Ranma.”</p><p>“I shall remember this, Saotome Ranma!” She handed over a black rose and leaped away laughing as she did so.</p><p>“How could you help that crazy witch!” one of the assorted women asked.</p><p>“You guys ain’t worth my time.” Ranma said shaking her head. “I’ve got people to meet.”</p>
<hr/><p>Kodachi stopped several blocks away and took a moment to sit down, starting to wrap up her ribbon. She moved to open her bag and stopped, focusing back to the fight and remembering opening the bag, but discarding it as soon as she had her ribbon. She hadn’t taken the time to close it. Then her mind flashed forward to the other gymnast who jumped away from her bag when she’d used the ribbon to grab it. The color drained from her face as she opened the bag started digging through it.</p><p>“No, no, no.” She whispered. “Not again.”</p><p>A small brown paper bag with a few small printed sheets stapled to it came out of the bag but it was empty. More frantically, Kodachi began emptying her bag of coin purse, make-up, mirror and everything else before screeching in rage and tossing it away in frustration before leaning against a nearby pole and shaking, tears streaming down her face.</p><p>She stopped and took a deep breath, clutching the pole with one hand and wiping her face clean with her other. “Fine. Fine. If they want to play it that way.”</p>
<hr/><p>“She attacked us out of nowhere, Akane!” </p><p>The martial artist looked over the three women sitting in her room and noted the lashes and shallow cuts they had. </p><p>“Who is this again?”</p><p>“Kodachi the Black Rose. She was the captain of my gymnastic club in high school and a first-class cheater.”</p><p>“She used to ambush teams from other schools!” another said. “I missed out on three months recovering from an injury and because of that I didn’t get a scholarship I was almost sure of.”</p><p>“St. Hebereke was banned from athletic competitions because of her. And none of it touched her, of course, she just went got special tutoring.”</p><p>“And what’s going on now?”</p><p>“She was on the university campus today and talking to advisors, Hatsumi saw her.”</p><p>“We can’t let her come to the university.”</p><p>Akane folded her arms and sat up straight. “So, let me get this straight, you want me to basically muscle up to this girl and tell her to go away?”</p><p>“Yeah! We can’t do it, if it weren’t for that red-head she would have torn us to shreds.”</p><p>“Red-head, huh?” Akane said. There were a handful of those on campus, but she wondered how many red-heads were capable fighters. The answer might have surprised her.</p><p>“Hey, Akane, there was a weird thing after I texted you…” Ranma walked in, drying his hair and buttoning his Chinese tunic over the tank-top he generally wore under it. “Huh, these jerks again.”</p><p>“What do you mean again? Who are you?” One of the women asked.</p><p>“No, focus,” another said. “Akane, you and your boyfriend got influence in the athletic department. You’re active streetfighters! Really, can’t you do something to keep this witch Kodachi out from attacking more innocents?”</p><p>“Umm, you attacked her, she was just better than you.” Ranma said.</p><p>Akane turned to him. “Wait, they attacked her, not the other way around?”</p><p>“He wasn’t there, he doesn’t know.”</p><p>“Yeah, they surrounded her and had weapons out.” Ranma said. “They got a good thirty seconds of attacks on her before she responded. Then, yeah, she got a little out of control.”</p><p>“We…we had to act!” Hatsumi protested. “If we let her on campus she’ll start her reign of terror all over again! Right, Enko?”</p><p>“That’s right! She’s evil! You don’t understand.” </p><p>The speaker snapped up to her feet swiftly enough that it jostled the contents of her pockets and two small plastic bottles with childproof caps toppled out. The gymnast blanched and darted down to snap the bottles up, but Akane reached them first. Standing up the Tendou fighter turned the labeled bottle to her </p><p>“Patient: Kunou Kodachi.” Akane read before turning on them . “You…you stole her medicine!?”</p><p>“We don’t need a drugged up lunatic poisoning the reputation of our school!”</p><p>“You have five seconds to leave my house,” Akane said.</p><p>“But…”</p><p>“Four.” They looked toward Ranma who held up two fingers and mouthed the word "Run."</p><p>The gymnasts scattered, turning sour looks back toward Ranma and Akane as they did. Ranma snorted and watched them leave before turning to Akane. “What do we do with the meds?”</p><p>“I don’t know, stop by the registration office and see if they know a Kunou Kodachi?”</p><p>“You don’t think…”</p><p>“He’s never even mentioned a sister before,” Akane said. “But…maybe, it’s the same kanji.”</p><p>“Yeah, deal with it tomorrow.” Ranma agreed. “So, Nabiki’s off to work?”</p><p>“Your dad and mine are off to the bars,” Akane added. “And Kasumi is doing her LARP tonight.”</p><p>“That was a really solid looking airsoft, by the way.”</p><p>“I know right? It looks like a real shotgun! I still don’t know where in her room she keeps it.” Akane said, standing up and leaning into Ranma, poking her finger into his chest. “But that’s off topic.”</p><p>“I’m going to go clean up the dojo and be right back.” He smiled and darted away, leaving Akane to put the stolen medicine bottles into her drew and start getting ready.</p><p>She turned the lights off and opened the door a couple of times to check how the light would fall on the bed when Ranma came in. Then she took off her t-shirt and skirt and sat back on the bed, leaning against the wall and waited patiently. The sound of movement in through the window caused her to shake her head and sit up. The steps were soft, almost silent and the shape she made out in the dark was a bit curvier and shorter than Ranma’s guy form.</p><p>“Come on, I went through all that effort to set up a presentation and you come in through the window?” </p><p>Akane reached over and switched on a light and immediately her speech was cut off as she found herself staring at a young woman with long, fluffy black hair in a fetching gymnast’s leotard staring at her angrily and holding a mallet. The other girl swung the mallet down toward Akane who simply grabbed it and twisted, pushing the attacking girl down into the bed and quickly subduing her face down into the bed. </p><p>“Who the fuck are you and why are you in my room?”</p><p>“Don’t play the fool, I saw you conspiring with those harridans!”</p><p>The door pushed open and Ranma rushed in. “What’s going…on?”</p><p>“Unhand me!”</p><p>“This woman just came in through the window and attacked me.”</p><p>“Remember those jerks you chased out earlier? This is the Kodachi person they were attacking.”</p><p>“Are you Kunou Kodachi?” She nodded her head toward the desk of drawers and Ranma nodded to head over there and take the medicine out of it.</p><p>“I am, indeed Kodachi, the Black Rose, and I will no longer accept this constant harassment.”</p><p>“You’re the one that snuck into my room and attacked me!” Akane took a deep breath. “I’m going to give you a break because you’ve clearly had a bad day? So, when I let you go, will you be civil?”</p><p>“I shall resist to my dying day!” Kodachi struggled for a solid minute without budging Akane’s hold. Then took a deep breath and grumbled. “Fine, let me go and I shall parley with you.”</p><p>“Okay then,” Akane said and then released her stepping back to give the other woman room. </p><p>Kodachi sat up on the bed and fussed with her hair, trying to put it back into place. As she did, Ranma tossed her the pill bottles. “We took those off those gymnasts. We were going to go looking for you tomorrow.”</p><p>The gymnast sat there, eyeing Akane in her electric blue lingerie and Ranma standing next to her before opening each bottle and checking inside. Relief visibly passed over her as she checked the contents. “I shall take you at your word and apologize for my behavior.”</p><p>“Want to talk about it?” Ranma asked.</p><p>“I just…I would much rather just return home.” She said, standing up.</p><p>“All right then, give me a second,” Akane said, opening her closet.</p><p>Kodachi watched as the other woman started grabbing clothes. “What is going on here?”</p><p>“What, you don’t expect us to just let you go off alone?” Ranma asked. “We’ll walk you home.”</p><p>“I am capable of taking care of myself.” Kodachi protested.</p><p>“Better safe than sorry. You said harassment, that means this isn’t the first time, right? Even if they can’t beat you up, they can ruin your night or make you look bad.”</p><p>“You clearly had some sort of romantic interlude planned,” Kodachi said. “I shouldn’t continue to interrupt that.”</p><p>Akane pulled a t-shirt over her head and adjusted the sweatpants she’d already pulled up. “Well, I’m already good to go, so might as well.”</p><p>The gymnast scoffed. “Well, fine if you can follow me!”</p><p>The Black Rose darted out the window and into the night. Her leap carried her to the edge of the property where she leaped off the property wall and out onto the next rooftop. She cartwheeled across it and then crossed the next gap with a beautiful seven-twenty transitioning into a series of back flips onto another set of buildings and then long leap across, catching hold of a maintenance bar along a walking bridge and pulling herself up over the edge of the railing and into graceful landing. She smiled smugly, turned to walk up the bridge, and stopped short when she saw Ranma standing there. The sound of something heavy landing behind her brought her eyes back to see Akane.</p><p>“Wow,” Akane said, straightening up and clapping. “That. That was a routine. She’s got you beat.”</p><p>“How did you?” Kodachi asked. “Where did you?”</p><p>“You’re a lot more agile, but you ain’t much faster than Akane,” Ranma said. </p><p>“Wow, the nerve of those jerks calling you a cheater.”</p><p>Kodachi took a deep breath. “They’re not lying about that. I cheat. In fact, I have a lifetime ban from competing. And I earned that.” </p><p>She bent her head down, hiding her face, and started walking down the bridge, though she didn’t complain when Ranma and Akane came up beside her. The three walked in silence to the end of the bridge and then Kodachi spoke again.</p><p>“St. Hebereke cheats. Institutionally. Enko was two years above me, she taught me how to pick locks and sabotage training gear my first year. I was good at it, then the captain graduated and I got named captain instead of them.”</p><p>“And they were jealous?” Ranma asked.</p><p>“Well, yes, but that was not really the problem.”</p><p>"What is?"</p><p>“I am good at cunning. I am bad…at not letting people know it happened.”</p><p>Akane thought for a moment. “Okay, yeah, I’m starting to remember talk about the Black Rose. It was a small scandal in the area.”</p><p>“I was…dramatic. Once I was in charge everything had to be a display. People had to know. I didn’t just do subtle things like give people a bad night’s sleep or make them twist their ankle. I ambushed them, I used quick-acting drugs to paralyze them, I…made a spectacle of it. St. Hebereke got…a three-year ban on gymnastics competitions? Enko, never got anything, she was ‘coerced’.” She was silent for another long time. “My family…sent me away.”</p><p>“Oh….uh…when did you get back? From away?” Akane gave Ranma a side-eye at the clumsy statement and he shrugged helplessly.</p><p>“Six months,” she said. “Six months of doing nothing. I need to do something. But every college in town, I just…just run into more of the girls I went to school with or who I’d done terrible things to.”</p><p>Akane reached out and patted her shoulder.</p><p>“Everybody makes mistakes.” Ranma said, shrugging.</p><p>“Have you ruined lives?” Kodachi asked.</p><p>“Yes.” They both said at once. The gymnast looked at them doubtfully and then gestured at the wall around the large building. “My house is here, are you going to follow me to the door?”</p><p>“Yeah, that’s just sort of basic.”</p><p>“Fine, let’s get this over with.”</p><p>The three walked around the corner and stopped as they caught sight of the women from earlier standing around the gate to the house. Kodachi leaped up onto a nearby building, quickly followed by Ranma and Akane. The three stalked quietly around the building and into a tree until they hung over the women.</p><p>“It seems as if you were correct about their plans to ambush me.” Kodachi whispered. She started to tense to move.</p><p>“Just wait and let them leave.” Akane said. “You don’t need to fight them.”</p><p>She snapped around to look at the Tendou woman and took a deep breath. “Fine. I’ll be…patient…”</p><p>“Where the hell is he? We’ve been waiting out here half an hour.”</p><p>“He…?” Kodachi asked, sharing a look with the other two in the tree limbs with her.</p><p>It didn’t take too much longer for an answer to present itself as the gate opened and a tall, dark-haired man in a kendo outfit stepped out into the streetlight. </p><p>“What the hell is…” Kodachi stopped as Akane and Ranma both shushed her sharply. The gymnast’s shoulders visibly tensed but she nodded and eased off her pounce position.</p><p>“It has been silent for quite some time.” Tatewaki said. “I assume by now my sister has gone to her bed for the night. So, is it done?”</p><p>“Yeah got her stuff, yeah,” Enko said. “But someone else took it from us.”</p><p>“A pity,” Kunou said. “ But at least these vile concoctions are out of my sister’s hands and will no longer give her a false idea of herself.”</p><p>“Whatever, Kuno,” Enko said. “Do you have the money?”</p><p>“As promised,” the kendoist said. “And well earned for such a mission of noble ends. You have passed the word along?”</p><p>“Oh, don’t worry, there’s plenty of girls that make sure Kodachi knows exactly how unwelcome she is at any school,” Hatsumi said. She counted the wad of cash Enko gave her carefully and then passed it on to the next girl.</p><p>“It is for the best.” Kunou nodded sagely. “My sister is not fit for the outside world. Now, be off before she chances to see our meeting.”</p><p>“Right, Kunou, and if you need someone to do a good deed again, remember where to go.” </p><p>The gymnasts practically vanished into the shadows leaving Enko behind to wave briefly before she herself vanished. Kunou looked up and down the street but not into the trees above him and stepped back into the Kunou estate. And a moment later, Kodachi had landed on the street in the lights and was getting set to chase after him until Ranma and Akane grabbed hold of her arms and started walking her in the other direction.</p><p>“Do you feel like going dancing?” Akane asked.</p><p>“Yeah that sounds like a good idea.”</p><p>“I am not interested in dancing! Let me go so that I might visit righteous anger upon my odious sibling!”</p>
<hr/><p>Kodachi sat and looked down at the t-shirt and skirt the other two martial artists had bought for her before coming to this nightclub. She was wearing it over her leotard and not entirely certain what the point of being here was. Though she was pleasantly relieved that as of yet nobody had come up to her and started any trouble. They’d been left alone since they arrived maybe five minutes ago.</p><p>The music was loud, fast, and upbeat, filling the room with declarations of defiance and promises of safety. Ranma came back to the table and set down three glasses. Akane took up her coke and Kodachi grabbed her iced-tea, which she looked out doubtfully. Once someone had offered her a “long island iced tea” and, well, some of her meds didn’t mix well with alcohol.</p><p>“Okay, ready…” Ranma asked, lifting his orange juice.</p><p>Akane held up her glass. Kodachi looked between the two confused a moment while they watched her. Akane gestured with her glass and the gymnast lifted hers up.</p><p>“And go!” </p><p>Ranma and Akane both started drinking as fast as they could and Kodachi wasn’t sure what the point was since there wasn’t a smell of alcohol and it was just soda and orange juice, but still started trying to down her iced-tea quickly as well.</p><p>The now empty coke struck the table first, followed a moment later by the orange juice. Kodachi was still struggling to get half-way when she took a moment to breathe and set down the drink. She started to reach out again since there was clearly some sort of competition going on but found Akane’s hand held out. Looking to the sides and trying to figure out what was going on, Kodachi took the muscular woman’s hand and found herself pulled out onto the dance floor. </p><p>“What’s going on?” Kodachi asked.</p><p>“Don’t worry, just dance,” Akane said. She moved forward and Kodachi reacted. Another motion and another reaction and then quickly Kodachi found the rhythm and moving with the music. Akane held to her only lightly, letting go whenever the Black Rose moved out of step with the song. Kodachi wasn’t precisely sure when it happened but she realized suddenly that she was pressing the lead rather than Akane. There was a moment of fear and hesitation in which Akane took back over and she was back in the comforting rhythm of responding and following to her partner.</p><p>The song changed and Ranma stepped into Akane’s place almost seamlessly. Kodachi blinked and watched as Akane stepped back and started dancing in a circle around them. Then she had to find a new pattern of motions as Ranma took the lead. It was far more mobile and less closed in dancing with him as they spun from position to position, ducking under his arms. She noticed it this time when her partner started to give her the lead and immediately tensed up, until he again started pressing the direction of their dance.</p><p>A third song came and Akane cut in again, once again holding her close but comfortingly. For a moment, the fact that the Tendou woman was still dressed in sweatpants and t-shirt amongst the rest of the club-goers struck her as amusing and she burst into a giggle that erupted into a shrill laugh.</p><p>“Glad you’re having fun,” Akane whispered as they closed out the song and this time, Kodachi reached out casually to take Ranma’s hand and go into another bout of spins and darting in and out of each other’s space without ever quite breaking contact.</p><p>Curious, Kodachi took some initiative as the next song came up and sung Ranma into Akane. The other two paused to look at Kodachi and there was clear concern on their face before Kodachi gave them a “go on” gesture and went about dancing herself close to them. She let herself fall into the rhythm and just image a routine in her mind. Needless to say she couldn’t do the twists and leaps on the small dance-floor, but it was something to guide the way she moved as she watched the other dance. </p><p>Akane and Ranma likely wouldn’t win any dance contests, but the other two’s enjoyment was clear as they vigorously competed to turn the dance closer to their preferred style. They stayed in time and rhythm but the lead shifted every few beats. If she had to summarize it, Kodachi would have said their dancing together was a mutual enjoyment of competition. At times she wasn’t sure whether the dance hadn’t somehow become a sparring match despite the lack of strikes and attacks.</p><p>When the fifth song started coming to an end, the three drifted over to their table and Akane signaled for refills. Kodachi sat down in the corner laughing shrilly as she set down in front of her somewhat more than half-glass of tea and melting ice. “Do you two often kidnap women and take them dancing?”</p><p>“Nah, this is a first,” Ranma said, sitting down and making room for Akane.</p><p>“And what was the point of the drinking contest?” she asked.</p><p>“Usually, we use it to decide who starts off with the lead.” Akane explained. “Loser leads first.”</p><p>“But surely the lead goes to the victor,” Kodachi said, confused.</p><p>“Having the lead first means having to defend it first.” Ranma said.</p><p>Kodachi blinked and looked at him, taking a sip of her watered-down tea. “Oh, of course, it makes perfect sense now.”</p><p>A waitress almost seemed to materialize out of the crowd and set down fresh drinks. “How are the RanKane tonight?”</p><p>“Doing fine, how’s the night?”</p><p>“Oh, busy, busy.” The waitress reached out and poked Ranma with a curious expression on her face. “You don’t dance guy-mode very often. Something up?”</p><p>“Uh, we haven’t had the chance to explain that yet, Dawn,” Ranma said. “Water please.”</p><p>“Explain what?” Kodachi asked.</p><p>“Ah, any nyoms?”</p><p>“Sure, sashimi plate?” Akane asked.</p><p>“Be right back,” the woman said with a smile and a wink before bouncing back into the crowds.</p><p>“Is she going to pounce us? I feel like she might pounce us.”</p><p>“Not while we’re eating. She’s not that silly.”</p><p>“What were you talking about?” Kodachi asked. “What do you need to explain?”</p><p>A plate landed gently on the table in front of the Black Rose who almost leaped in surprise, and then Dawn set a glass of water in front of Ranma.</p><p>"Nyoms delivered." Dawn said. "Enjoy!"

</p><p>“So, we’ve got curses,” Ranma said.</p><p>“You’re martial artists, yes.” Kodachi said, as if this were the most obvious statement in the world.</p><p>“Right!” Akane asked, gesturing broadly at the gymnast.</p><p>“Anyway,” Ranma said, with a sigh. “Akane’s we can’t really demonstrate here without getting into trouble, but….”</p><p>He took the glass of water and up-ended it over his head. Kodachi blinked as the young-man’s body shrank into something much smaller and curvier. “Hallucinations aren’t a normal symptom of mine…”</p><p>“No, no. Don't worry about that.” Ranma said quickly, hands out. “I just…well I have two bodies.”</p><p>Kodachi pointed, opened her mouth, closed it, and drink deeply of her iced-tea. “Wait. You're that woman...or is it man....or what are you?”</p><p>“Fluid.” The red-head answered. “I just sort of…vary. Sometimes I feel like a nut, sometimes I don’t.”</p><p>“I don’t get it.” Kodachi said.</p><p>Akane rolled her eyes and pulled out her phone looking for something. “Here, watch this.”</p><p>Kodachi leaned forward and watched the video pass. “That's an advertisement for chocolate bars. What does that have to do with anything?”</p><p>“Think about what changes below the belt, Kodachi,” Akane said.</p><p>“Ohh, because testicles and the vagina. Right. Okay…I get it now.” She paused a moment and then erupted in a mix of giggling and shrill full laughter. “That’s hilarious!”</p><p>She sighed, slowly settling down and took a long drink. “But why tell me about this?”</p><p>“We kinda think it’s clear you shouldn’t go back to your house for now,” Ranma said, nervously.</p><p>“And if you’re going to stay at my family’s place, it’s best you saw Ranma’s change before it happened on accident.”</p><p>“You want me to stay at your place.”</p><p>“I mean, we could get you a hotel or something too, but it’s probably the easiest to do.”</p><p>“Your brother is fucking with your life,” Ranma said. “You’re not safe there.”</p><p>Kodachi grimaced and pulled a little back. “Maybe…maybe…if I said yes, what will happen?”</p><p>“Well,” Ranma said. “Akane’s sister has a friend.”</p>
<hr/><p>The doorbell rang and Kunou frowned as he came up to the door and pulled it open to see two figures there that looked vaguely familiar. A man in a rumpled army coat and a woman in a smart, black suit. He spotted the badges visible on their belts and straightened his back.</p><p>“Ahh, Mr. Kunou, sir, not a pleasure to see you.”</p><p>“Hello, magistrates,” he said. “To what purpose have you come to my family’s estate.”</p><p>“Oh, nothing much. What was it we’re here for, Onda?”</p><p>“We’re making sure your sister gets moved out safely.”</p><p>“My sister? She has no plans to move.”</p><p>“We’re told differently. And we have a warrant granting permission to remove items that belong to her.”</p><p>“Where is this warrant?” Kunou demanded. </p><p>“Aoshima, I think you have it.” </p><p>“Oh, oh! You’re right, one moment. Here it is.” He pulled out an envelope and offered it to Kunou.</p><p>“Is that a restraining order?”</p><p>“Now, how could they possibly have gotten a restraining order put against you for coming near your sister in, what was it, Onda?”</p><p>Onda checked her watch. “Ten hours. It’s incredible to think such a thing could possibly be done in such a short period of time.”</p><p>“You are obviously correct, but I have fallen prey to your deceptions before.” He took it and read it. “This is a warrant granting you permission to remove my sister’s things.”</p><p>“That’s what we told you it was.” </p><p>“But I thought it would be a restraining order.”</p><p>“Does your sister need a restraining order against you?”</p><p>Kunou paused and considered that for a moment. “You make an interesting question.”</p><p>“In the meantime…” Onda moved to the side and four men in white overalls pushed through into the building.</p><p>Kunou watched them walk through the building. “What do these…fellows think they are doing in my house.”</p><p>Onda and Aoshima took a deep breath almost in unison. “Removing your sister’s things.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>There are things about Kodachi that make me sympathize with her that Tatewaki lacks. The Kunou family all seem to have some level of mental illness, but Tatewaki and his father also seem to just be malicious in ways that aren't explained by that. It feels like in the manga that the closest thing to friendship Kodachi has is her pursuit of Ranma and rivalry with Akane or the pig-tailed girl and she just flat doesn't know how to friend. There are several characters in Ranma 1/2 that live in an illusion. In most cases, that illusion is self-made and predominately used to keep them from facing their consequences of their own actions. This includes Ranma and Akane. </p><p>Kodachi and Tatewaki both have illusions that are more like inflicted on them by chance and it makes both of them dangerous. But, like I said above, Tatewaki does horrible things that in no way mesh up with his delusions. Meanwhile Kodachi, from what I can tell, just doesn't understand what reality and life are or how they work. Kodachi also screams more suicide risk red-flags to me than even Ryouga does and I almost had her appearance her be Ranma or Akane stopping her from an attempt, but ultimately decided it was against the intent of the fic, which is to predominately be light-hearted. So, a Kodachi that is aware she's done bad things isn't trying to excuse it, but trying not to repeat it makes me happy, because that's a path to recovery. That's her being able to actually see what's going on.</p><p>I'm having too much fun with Aoshima and Onda. This story is mostly for me, so there's a risk of me pushing a joke I find funny that other people grow tired of, but we'll see.</p><p>As to "Sometimes you feel like a nut..." well the juvenile part of me recently did catch an audio sample of that jingle and make a goofy video on youtube. </p><p>As a reminder, I do most of my editing passes after I post...but I do have friends who will point out to me all my grammar errors, places where a relic from earlier version pops up, or places I forget to finish a sentence.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Public Browsing</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Kodachi gets welcomed into the household.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Be reasonable, Kasumi!” Soun said. “I can understand giving Ranma a place to stay as he is engaged to Akane. But we know nothing about this girl! Certainly we could have given the last empty room to my friend Saotome.”</p><p>Kasumi sighed and shook her head. “What we know about your friend is why we won’t offer him a room, not because we didn’t have space until now.”</p><p>“Really, when have I given any reason to not be trustworthy?”</p><p>“You mean like getting Ranma evicted from their apartment,” the eldest Tendou asked.</p><p>“That was not my fault, the landlord over-reacted to the curse…and the damage,” Genma said.</p><p>“Or the petty cash box being emptied every week for the past month and a half?”</p><p>“That wasn’t Genma,” Soun protested. “We needed that for…necessary expenses.”</p><p>“Perhaps you could use that to pay off the creditors to whom you gave our phone number?”</p><p>“I think you may have forgotten who pays the bills around here,” Soun protested, crossing his arms.</p><p>“Which bills, father?” Kasumi asked, rubbing her forward.</p><p>“Well, the electricity and water, of course.”</p><p>“I’ve paid the internet and the utilities off dojo rentals and odd jobs the past three years.”</p><p>“Oh, hmm,” Soun thought a moment. “Well the food budget.”</p><p>“Nabiki’s hostess job.”</p><p>“State medical insurance.”</p><p>“Nabiki’s photography sales and commissions.”</p><p>“The property taxes.”</p><p>“Akane’s first streetfighting purse.”</p><p>“Nabiki and Akane’s tuition.”</p><p>“They’re paying for that themselves.”</p><p>“Phones?”</p><p>“We each pay our own. And I pay the dojo’s landline.”</p><p>“So, what bills am I paying exactly?”</p><p>“Last I checked, Father, cigarettes and the newspaper subscription. Oh, and most of the alcohol.”</p><p>“Ahhh,” Soun said. “Well.”</p><p>“And what is my son providing to all this then?” Genma asked smugly.</p><p>Kasumi shook her head and wrote something down on a slip of paper and handed it over. “He paid 3 months in advance and buys some food.”</p><p>Genma blinked and looked over it. “Now this is clearly a lie. My son has never had such an amount of money in his hands. I can assure of that because I’ve kept a watch on his funds. There is no hidden stash that could account for what you claim. For that matter, none of you have any money sitting around to pay these sort of expenses. The only money I’ve found around the house is that box with assorted loose coins and bills.”</p><p>“We have bank accounts.” </p><p>The eldest Tendou daughter started to tap her index finger where it was wrapped around her opposite elbow. She turned her head to face her fathers and smiled widely. “Father do you think this conversation can come to an end now? Or do you want it to continue?”</p><p>Soun watched as the shadows in the corners of the hallway started to turn dark red and green. “Hmmm, Saotome, I think we should return to…uh…hunting up lodgings for you…and perhaps a job.”</p><p>“But, Tendou, your daughter.”</p><p>Soun grabbed his friend and pulled him quickly away leaving Kasumi staring after where they’d left. After a moment her mouth opened and her eyes scrunched up in disbelief. Slowly the shadows turned their natural darkness and retreated to their normal places around her.</p><p>“He hasn’t found lodging yet?”</p><p>Kasumi smoothed out her dress and reached up to rub the base of her horns. She turned around to walk to the kitchen and found the newest house resident standing there looking up at her face and blinking. The Tendou took a deep breath and sighed.</p><p>“Did Ranma and Akane forget to tell you I was an oni?”</p><p>“Oh, thank god.” Kodachi said, suddenly looking very relieved before tensing up again and asking almost hopefully. “The shadows changing colors?”</p><p>“I was a little upset,” Kasumi said. Once again, the slender young woman looked immensely relieved.</p><p>“Excellent, then all is right in the world. I should assume that you are the head of the household then?”</p><p>Kasumi blinked a moment and then smiled. “That is fair to say. Tendou Kasumi, and I assume you are Kodachi then?”</p><p>“Yes, I apologize for the lack of audience with you beforehand.” She said. “Ranma and Akane were quite insistent.”</p><p>“From what they said, they had reason to be,” Kasumi noted. “Is there anything I should know about your schedule or needs?”</p><p>“I have my medications,” Kodachi said. “Other than that, I do not yet have anything.”</p><p>“All right then,” Kasumi said. “If you have any requests for the weekly shopping you can put them on the household google-doc. I’ll give you the link in a moment. Were you planning to do anything today?”</p><p>“Excuse me, what’s a google-doc?”</p><p>“The men earlier brought a computer in, correct?” </p><p>Kodachi nodded. “Yes, but I don’t see what that has to do with anything.”</p><p>“Ahh, let’s get you set up,” Kasumi said. </p><p>She walked to the stairs and passed quickly up them, Kodachi following behind. The elder Tendou stopped by her own door, where a sign in the shape of a cloud with oni horns was engraved with the name Kasumi, and walked inside to grab a clipboard from her desk near a framed photo of man in glasses. Kodachi leaned forward slightly to get a better look at the desk and its contents.</p><p>The oni woman was soon coming back out into the hall and gesturing for Kodachi to follow her past the door with the silver bat on which was the name “Nabiki”, the door with the red duck with lightning and the name "Akane", the cute horse on which Ranma’s name was printed, and finally to the one door that did not have a name plate hanging from the hook on it. Further down the hallway was a door with a plain brown wooden sign noting the name “Father” on it. </p><p>There was more in Kodachi’s room than Ranma’s though much less than Kasumi had been expecting. A lot of it was brand new, a few months old at best, but included bookshelves, a bed, a closet full of clothes including several kimonos, a desk with a computer, and a full vanity with make-up and accessories. The Tendou woman sat down at the computer and powered it up. Kodachi watched as she reached the desktop and immediately started moving through various programs.</p><p>“Okay, that’s you connected on the wi-fi.” Kasumi said. “Annnd…here is the house-hold google-doc. This column here can only be edited by me. This column lists the household bills, the names next to it show who’s committed to paying what. There’s where we account Ranma’s rent payments…and we’ll add you here right now.” A row of squares with Kodachi’s name appeared and the entry “5 months paid” appeared. “This column is Akane’s shopping list. Here’s Nabiki’s. Ranma’s. Mine. And, one moment…” Kodachi blinked as a new column was inserted. “There’s yours. And…over here...”</p><p>The entire document vanished and a calendar opened up showing names and highlighted sections. “We record important events here for each other so that we know when we’re available. Do you have a color you want?”</p><p>“Where’d the shopping lists go?” Kodachi asked.</p><p>“Watch the arrow,” Kasumi said pointing the screen before moving the mouse and clicking from one tab to another. “If you need anything else, please ask me. You have a nice computer here.”</p><p>“I just asked for the best computer they could give me. I don’t know what to do with it.”</p><p>“Well, perhaps computer classes should be something to look into.” Kasumi suggested with a smile. “Did you have a color you want to use? Ranma’s using red, Akane’s using blue, Nabiki’s using green, and I’m using pink.”</p><p>“I don’t suppose black is usable?”</p><p>“That shouldn’t be a problem.” </p><p>Kasumi turned back to the computer and slowly moved the cursor to where the background color could be selected and scrolled to black followed by switching the text to white and typed in “move in date” under the day’s entry.</p><p>“There you go.”</p><p>The sound of a soft ding carried down from the hallway and Kasumi looked past her second tenant and then stood up. “Right, that would be the 3-D printer. One moment.” </p><p>Kodachi blinked and watched as the oni brushed past her and out into the hallway. She sat down at her desk and looked over the calendar, seeing the class schedules for the three university students as well as sporadic notes in green or pink showing “Yashida birthday party” or “Imaeda photo-shoot.” She noted here and there mentions of different martial arts tournaments, a semi-regular note of LARP nights and one long pink note across three days noted “Sendai LARP annual.” Several weeks along in red, green, and blue there was the event “Gauntlet of Battle registration deadline.” </p><p>“They’re streetfighters,” Kodachi said in consideration.</p><p>“All right, this should be the last piece to the room from my end.” Kasumi’s voice said. </p><p>Kodachi turned to the doorway and saw the woman hanging a nameplate in the shape of a sheathed short sword wrapped by a black rose with the name “Kodachi” written on it. She reached up a hand and started to say something when she saw Akane walk into view through the door frame and waving at Kodachi.</p><p>“We’re heading to the university did you need to do anything on campus?”</p>
<hr/><p>“I didn’t think anything about mentioning Kasumi.” Ranma said. </p><p>“Sorry about that, Kodachi. That must have been a surprise.” Akane said.</p><p>Kodachi nodded. “It’s fine, she made me feel very welcome.”</p><p>“Regarding that, don’t be surprised when you meet Nabiki and notice she’s a vampire.” </p><p>“I will rem…what?” Kodachi asked. “Oh. Hmmm…that explains her shopping list.”</p><p>“Also, this university is weird.” Ranma said.</p><p>“I have a high tolerance for weirdness.” The gymnast shrugged, unconcerned with the assertion.</p><p>“Anyway,” Ranma said, pointing at the building Kodachi recognized as holding most of the administration offices and then pointed. “I got an educational psychology class in the humanities building.” </p><p>“Biology lab.” Akane said with a look of distaste. “We’re dissecting frogs this week.”</p><p>“How delightful.” Kodachi said with a smile. “It is interesting to see how things function, isn’t it?”</p><p>Akane opened her mouth and then stopped. “Yeah, I guess.”</p><p>“I am perfectly fine to handle this from here,” Kodachi assured them. “I already made the appointment and I do not foresee any more interference. If I do need help, I have your phone-numbers.” She held up a pocket-sized notebook.</p><p>“We’ll see you later then.” Akane said, reaching out to pull Kodachi into a hug causing the other woman to almost freeze. “Oh…err, sorry, should have asked first.”</p><p>“It is fine,” Kodachi said and then awkwardly reaching around with her own arms to hug Akane herself. “The gesture is much appreciated and welcome, just a little bit of a surprise.”</p><p>Then Kodachi turned to hug Ranma and Akane stifled a laugh as she tried to decide which of the two was the most awkward. </p><p>“Umm, good luck.”</p><p>“I shouldn’t need it. I am only seeing an advisor. I won’t be able to take classes until the next period is in session.”</p><p>And then the two were walking down the path away from Kodachi. The gymnast looked around at all the people walking across the campus. There were people everywhere and Kodachi felt the odd and familiar sensation of being alone in a crowd. It pressed down on her briefly and she felt the building urge to draw attention, any sort of attention. It wasn’t a new thing and it was something she’d mostly been able to shove back down into herself over the past months. It was a bit surprising how easy it was for to push it down this time, she’d expected the brief period of interaction to make this moment worse. Pondering this, she turned around to walk into the building and face the bureaucratic machinery within. </p><p>“I have an appointment with an advisor, please.” Kodachi said as she came up to the counter.</p><p>“May I have your name please?” </p><p>“Kunou Kodachi.”</p><p>“Oh, yes, I remember you from yesterday. One moment, yes. All right, may I have the papers please?” </p><p>Kodachi started to turn to her bag and hesitated, remembering how she had tossed all the contents of the bag yesterday when she’d discovered her medications had been stolen. Her shoulders tensed and her teeth gritted. “I may have lost it.”</p><p>“Oh,” the woman behind the counter said before craning her neck around and typing on the computer. She walked to the row of printers behind her and then returned with a sheet of paper. “Oh, here it is. She stamped the paper she’d just received and passed it on toward Kodachi. Now, you’ll want to go up those stairs and take the first left.”</p><p>Kodachi stared at the paper in her hand and back to the woman behind the counter, struggling with the urge to ask a question before the woman gestured encouragingly for her to move on.</p>
<hr/><p>/So. Dancing last night was fun./</p><p>/Yeah. I always like dancing with you./</p><p>/…/</p><p>/Dancing with Kodachi was also fun./</p><p>/Well…uh, yeah but, I’m not going to…you know./</p><p>/I’m not worried about you cheating on me, Ranma./</p>
<hr/><p>The directions were easy to follow and she found herself coming into a small office, sitting across from a man in his mid-30s looking at a computer screen. As she entered, he half stood with a smile and gestured for her to sit.</p><p>“Ah, Miss Kunou, please take a seat.”</p><p>“Thank you Mr Sueno.”</p><p>“Now, you were thinking of attending classes here?”</p><p>“Yes, I was. I feel a need to make something of my time.”</p><p>“I see, it is good to feel productive, isn’t it?” he asked. He turned to the computer and moved his mouse around. “I see your test scores were quite good. But I don’t see anything regarding what your intended field of study would be.”</p><p>“I…am still considering that,” Kodachi said. “It is quite some time before I can even look at the available classes, much less choose some. And I wanted to see what the baseline would be before making a choice.”</p><p>“Well, you see this is the situation.” The man turned to her, took his glasses and cleaned them before putting them back on his face, clasping his hands together, and leaning forward on his desk. “It is hard to give good advice on what you would need without knowing what your intended field of study.”</p><p>“I can’t be the only student that taking classes without a clear idea of where to go.”</p><p>“That is true. You’re correct. We have a large number of undeclared students on the campus. But in your situation –“</p><p>“What about my situation?”</p><p>“Well.” The man straightened back up and laughed once. “The issue of your high school athletic career. Your…” leaned forward again “…special tutoring.”</p><p>“All of that is supposed to be sealed.”</p><p>“I was surprised, but it was unsealed by…well, hmm. I’m sure it was unsealed by your proper guardians.”</p><p>“I am 19 and was released to my own independence half a year ago. I don’t have ‘proper guardians.’ If you are looking at my file right now…”</p><p>The thought of rising from her chair and attacking the man pushed through her mind. She still had her ribbon in her bag and she could easily use it to lift him up from the ground. Instead she took a deep breath and another and then met his eyes.</p><p>“…I could have grounds to bring the university on charges of breach of privacy.”</p><p>“Well…there’s no need to go that far.” He reached up to clean his glasses again. As he did so, Kodachi stood up, forcing herself to do it slowly though he still pushed himself back away from her with a speed most would reserve for a dangerous animal.</p><p>“I was told I already had been accepted. I just needed the information for deadlines and basic requirements.”</p><p>“There are…levels of acceptance.”</p><p>The sound of someone clearing his throat drew her attention, and she whipped about to see an older man standing there. He walked across the office and turned the monitor to face out into the room revealing a game of solitaire. He logged out the computer and turned to Mr. Sueno. “Please wait for me in my office.”</p><p>Sueno looked between the older man and back out into the office before darting out. The older man walked to the doorway and waved toward one of the people in the cubicles. A tiny woman with brown hair stepped over. “Yes, Mr. Uegaki. Do you need me?”</p><p>The older man turned toward Kodachi and smiled. “Retsuko here will handle your appointment. It is a pleasure to meet you, Miss Kunou.” He then gestured for the woman to enter the room and walked slowly through the hallway in the same direction Sueno had traveled. “Retsuko, log in please.”</p><p>Retsuko blinked and stepped into the room fumbling into the seat. Her phone landed on the desk and suddenly the sound of loud thrumming base and harsh yelling came through for the five seconds it took the woman to shut off her music player. “Excuse me. Uhh, now what were you looking to do?”</p><p>The gymnast looked around and sat down and started the appointment over again.</p>
<hr/><p>/So…what’s up?/</p><p>/You had fun with Kodachi last night./</p><p>/Yeah./</p><p>/I had fun with Kodachi last night./</p><p>/….oh…/</p><p>/And I was wondering about asking her out./</p><p>/Us./</p><p>/You and me./</p><p>/Both of us./</p><p>/I mean, remember when you told me ‘just tell me I’m dating two people'? when we first met?/</p><p>/Ranma? Can you please answer me?/</p><p>/Sorry, thinking./</p>
<hr/><p>Before Kodachi left the office, a security guard had come in to remove several items in a cardboard box. It was a momentary distraction from the meeting and she herself walked out with a list basic class requirements, summaries of several degree programs, and a schedule for a basic computer skills class that she could just attend between now and the next registration period. Walking through the office she looked for Mr. Uegaki, eventually finding him at the water fountain.</p><p>“Excuse me,” she said. The man turned to face her with a smiling face.</p><p>“What is it Miss Kunou?” he asked, smiling pleasantly.</p><p>“Why did you help me there?”</p><p>The man took a breath and considered the question. “I’d like to say that it was my job, but the truth is hundreds of students come in and out here and I might never have noticed. But the truth is we have a mutual friend.”</p><p>“I’m sorry. I’m not sure who you might mean.”</p><p>“You had a single letter of recommendation with your application Miss Kunou. And the man who wrote it happens to be a man I know. So, I paid more attention than I might otherwise have. I wouldn’t have been coming in to see the appointment if it weren’t for that.”</p><p>“You know Dr. Ono?” she asked.</p><p>“He saved my granddaughter’s life. I hope you have a successful time of study here. Miss Kunou. And don't worry about your records, they're sealed. He didn't get his information from the official record.” The man lifted up his cup of water and then walked off. </p><p>Kodachi looked at the schedule for computer classes again and noted that one of the classes was coming up. She walked over to the courtesy phone and looked through her notebook for one of the phone numbers.</p>
<hr/><p>/God, you scared me. I thought I got you mad./</p><p>/What if she’s not interested? We don’t even know who she’s attracted to./</p><p>/Then we say fine and that’s it. Stay friends./</p><p>/What if she’s only interested in one of us?/</p><p>/That…that’ll be hard. I…I don’t know. But maybe we can try?/</p>
<hr/><p>“All right, this is a self-paced class.” The inspector said to Kodachi, badly concealing the fact she found the presence of the young woman amongst all the older adults amusing. “This book has the individual lessons and if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to flag me or the other instructor down, all right?”</p><p>“Excellent.” Kodachi said.</p><p>She lost track of time sitting in the computer lab as the instructors changed shifts and other students came and left, some for the computer classes and many for other projects in the university. She did eventually take a break, of a sort, moving to do a google search on some names. </p><p>There were a lot of false hits, of course, but she found some of the videos of Akane’s and Ranma’s fights, watching those on mute. And then she found a hit on Tendou Nabiki and came to few galleries of photographs. She flipped through those some minutes, admiring the various beautiful men and women on the posters and stopping at galleries marked “shocker” and “water” as she recognized the two people that were the focus of those two galleries. Part of her was amused at the idea that some people would be confused as to why “wild” featured what looked like two people instead of one, but mostly she could feel the heat rising to her cheeks. They were both fairly tame sets of pictures compared to a few of the other galleries, but maybe it was because she had met these people.</p><p>“You need to be careful what you’re searching in the public computer labs.”</p><p>Kodachi scrambled to close the tab and whipped around to look at Akane and Ranma standing there, Ranma leaning over.</p><p>“My apologies, I didn’t go looking for that. I just…” she tried to look anywhere but at them.</p><p>“It’s all right, Kodachi.” Akane said. “Your appointment went okay then?”</p><p>“There was an…unexpected rough patch, but it did go well in the end, yes.”</p><p>“We were thinking of catching a movie and maybe running about the neighborhood a bit.” Akane said slowly looking toward Ranma. “End at Shouganai for some dancing.”</p><p>“Did you want to come along?”</p><p>Kodachi glanced over toward the computer, still trying to banish her blush. “Are you asking me to join your date?”</p><p>Ranma’s shoulders tensed and he looked around. “Well…yeah.”</p><p>“You don’t have to do that, I am fine to go back to the house on my own. Don’t let me intrude…”</p><p>“No. That’s not it. Uhhh…” Akane looked around hesitantly and wrung her hands out sitting next to Kodachi. “Listen, I’ve never done this before. I mean I’ve asked people on dates before. I basically asked Ranma to a love motel the first day I met him. But, I’ve not done this…”</p><p>“We’d want to try to maybe date you?” Ranma said and Kodachi saw the blush working up his face. Then Akane reached over to the computer keyboard and quickly typed out a word into the search bar and then clicking on an article.</p><p>Kodachi blinked and looked over to begin reading it. “…the practice of, or desire for, intimate relationships with more than one partner, with the informed consent of all part…” She blinked as the implications struck her and her face started getting more red.</p><p>The three sat there awkwardly, flitting eyes toward each other and glancing toward other people in the computer lab, making sure no one was listening in. Finally, Kodachi took a deep breath and said. “Might I ask what movie we’re going to then?”</p>
<hr/><p>It was nearly a week later when Ranma was woken up by the sound of pounding on her door. Standing out of bed quickly, the martial artist threw on a t-shirt and quickly stepped over to pull open the door and interrupt the incessant knocking.</p><p>“It’s 3am goddamn it! What do you want?”</p><p>“Boy, you have some explaining to do.” Genma said grimly.</p><p>“What the hell are you doing here in the middle of the night, Pop?” Ranma asked.</p><p>“Nevermind that,” Soun said. “That Kunou girl is not in her room.”</p><p>“Wh…what the hell are you doing spying on her now?”</p><p>“I am making sure that you do not betray…”</p><p>“You need to back the hell out of here now.” Ranma glanced back into the room and then opened the door wide. “I mean look, there’s nobody in here but me.”</p><p>The two older men stepped into the room and looked about, eyeing the covers on the bed for a moment before Soun turned to Genma. “You seem to be…mistaken, Saotome.”</p><p>Genma growled and considered it. “It’s possible, I suppose.”</p><p>“Now are you going to get out of here before you wake up Kasumi?” Ranma asked, watching as Soun blanched and dragged a protesting Genma out of the room.</p><p>As Ranma started to close the door.</p><p>“That was luc…” </p><p>Ranma was interrupted by sudden feeling of dread as the sound of something scraping across wood came to his ears and he turned around to see nails that may have been a foot long extending from a hand that caught the door before it could close. Slowly, the door started to push up, showing a form with long horns and two glowing red suns for eyes as the hallway behind swirled in dark green and red.</p><p>“Ranma.” The voice was very polite and friendly and easily recognizable as Kasumi’s. “Tell me you haven’t betrayed my sister.”</p><p>“Uhhh…”</p><p>“I’m under here, sis,” Akane said quickly and quietly, poking her head out from under the bed and waving.</p><p>Ranma looked to her and then back to the doorway, where Kasumi was standing looking a little put out and straightening herself, all sign of the former appearance vanished. “Oh my, sometimes you two give me a heart attack.”</p><p>Akane grabbed a t-shirt and climbed out from under the bed and then sat on it, still tense and nervous.</p><p>“We give you a heart attack?” Ranma asked quietly.</p><p>“Still, I do wonder where Kodachi…”</p><p>There was a sneeze. Ranma and Akane froze as Kasumi took several steps and looked into the closet.</p><p>“Oh, there you are Kodachi.” The eldest Tendou said.</p><p>“Good evening, Kasumi…” Kodachi said nervously. She squeaked when Kasumi reached in and hugged her before stepping back out into the room.</p><p>“I do apologize for the interruption,” she said, kissing Akane on the cheek and then hugging Ranma before leaving the room with a friendly wave and knowing smile. “I’ll try to keep a better watch in the future. Have a good night and be safe.”</p><p>Kodachi cautiously peeked out of the closet, hair even fluffier than usual and out of its normal side-tail. “What was that?”</p><p>“Kasumi approves.” Akane said flopping back on the bed.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>This is rushed. I could easily draw this development a whole lot, but you know what, I don't feel like doing that. I said from the beginning this was going to be a poly-ship and here we are. Also, I had this scene pop into my mind with Kasumi a few days ago and it gave me a chuckle.</p><p>Also, yes, Kodachi saw the picture of Dr. Ono Tofu Kasumi has but not close enough to recognize it. Plus he might have looked different by the time she met him. I'm thinking he was a big part of getting her out of being institutionalized. I know in canon he's an acupuncturist and chiropractor, but I'm comfortable saying that either he has a psychiatry license or else has friends who do.</p><p>Further note, with Ranma and Kodachi contributing, their finances are going to be less vulnerable since right now the only one of them that has a regular job is Nabiki and the others have sources of income that come in large irregular sums.</p><p>Genma's going to need actual consequences soon, I think. As a friend has pointed out monitoring family member bank accounts can be one type of abuse. In this case, he's looking for hidden cash because he's an idiot, but the point remains. The fact that he basically admitted to snooping for the Tendou women's cash just adds to the pile.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Charlotte's Debut</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>A new face steals in.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Mr. Hibiki!” Akari called out, waving cheerfully. He looked around, in the wrong directions, a couple of times. “Over here, Mr. Hibiki!”</p><p>He turned around. “Oh! Hi Akari.”</p><p>Akari watched as he started to gather himself up to leap across the street and then someone a few feet away slipped on a label, losing control of the hose in their hand, sending water flying everywhere and suddenly the powerful martial artist was replaced by a surprised looking black pig flailing in the middle of air before plopping back to the sidewalk and grimacing in annoyance.</p>
<hr/><p>“Wait, water turns you into a pig?” Ranma asked. “How long has that been going on?”</p><p>Ryouga laughed nervously and scratched the back of his head. “Well, when I followed you to China I found this place called….”</p><p>“Jusenkyo. Yeah, that’s why I change too.” </p><p>“What do you turn into?” Ryouga asked.</p><p>“You’re kidding right” Akane said. “Ranma changed right in front of you at the tournament.”</p><p>“He did?” Ryouga asked.</p><p>“Yeah, I was the red-head.”</p><p>“Oh…I was focused on the fire and then…” </p><p>Akari wrung her hands together and spoke up. “Can I continue telling the story please?”</p><p>“Yeah, go ahead, Akari.”</p>
<hr/><p>The agriculture student winced and rushed to the crosswalk, waiting for the signal and then rushing across to the pile of gear and pig. She arrived to find a small young woman wearing roller skates cuddling Ryouga tightly.</p><p>“Hey! What are you doing with Mr. Hibiki?” Akari demanded, rushing over to grab the pig out of her hands.</p><p>The other woman glared sharply at her and snapped. “Why did you take Little Azusa’s Charlotte?”</p><p>“Wh..what” Akari asked. “This isn’t ‘your Charlotte’ this…this…uh…” Akari looked around at the people watching and sweated briefly, stumbling over her next statement. “This is my Mr Hibiki! He…he was just watching my things for me.”</p><p>Akari reached over with one hand to try and lift Ryouga’s backpack and immediately thanked her life-time of farm work and pig training for allowing her to lift the thing an inch off the ground without pulling her shoulder out of the joint. </p><p>“Hmph, Little Azusa thinks you’re lying!” the roller-skater said.</p><p>“Well…I’m not!” Akari said, blushing brightly. “This…this is my…my…my p...p…p…pet pig.”</p><p>Azusa crossed her arms and smiled. “Little Azusa don’t think you have license.”</p><p>“What does that matter?” Akari asked.</p><p>“Little Azusa could just take back her little Charlotte, but how about make it interesting? Little Azusa challenges you to a skating match!”</p><p>Akari looked about quickly, just wanting to be out of the situation. “Fine!”</p>
<hr/><p>“I didn’t know she was some kind of figure skating prodigy or that she was talking about a martial arts skating match!” Akari said desperately.</p><p>“Okay, it’s embarrassing.” Akane said. “But it’s not like she can force Ryouga to stay with her.”</p><p>“That’s not the end…” the agriculture student said voice dripping shame.</p>
<hr/><p>“Fine.” Akari said. “I’ll see your challenge in the name of the Unryuu family!” And almost immediately the color drained out her face.</p>
<hr/><p>“She called my grandfather! I’ve accepted a challenge on family honor over a pet pig that doesn’t actually exist!”</p><p>“I don’t want to make too much light of this,” Ranma said. “But what’s the worst that can happen if you explain things to your grandfather?”</p><p>“My status as majority heir will be contested. Then my cousins will start fighting over where to take the farm.” Her words came faster as she continued. “Corners will be cut. Staff will be alienated. The sumo pig training program will be ended. We’ll bleed funds until one of the multinational agri-corps absorbs us and I’ll be the cause of the end of over nine hundred years of Unryuu farming because I acted like a teenager in a moment of panic!”</p><p>“Sumo pig training program?” </p><p>“Okay, so stuff can get pretty bad. What do you want us to do about it?”</p><p>“We heard that there was a rhythmic gymnastics martial artist staying here.” Ryouga said. “Akari is allowed to name a champion to stand in for her and we thought we’d ask.”</p><p>Kodachi leaned forward. “Is this Shiratori Azusa?” Akari nodded. “I can probably beat her. I haven’t faced her since junior high when I was last practicing figure skating regularly though.”</p><p>“Oh, good,” Ryouga said. </p><p>“Thank god.” Akari said. “Thank you. Thank you!”</p><p>“I’d offered to stand in because I’ve trained Rhythmic Gymnastics and Figure Skating too, but the official wouldn’t let a man substitute in for Akari.” Ryouga started to slow down as he saw Kodachi lean forward, lift a hand up with one finger gesturing for him to wait and her face taking on a grimace. “Is something wrong?”</p><p>“You said ‘official.’”</p><p>“Yeah.”</p><p>“I have a lifetime ban.”</p><p>“I thought that was Rhythmic Gymnastics.” Akane said.</p><p>“It’s the same governing body,” Kodachi said. “Rhythmic gymnastics, figure skating, cheerleading, color guard, dancing. All the perfomative martial arts are wrapped together.”</p><p>“What did you do to get a lifetime ban?” Ryouga asked. </p><p>Akane pushed forward and leaned over to look at Ranma. “So, can you do it?”</p><p>“I don’t know how to skate.”</p><p>“I’m doomed.”</p><p>“Well, I can skate.” Akane said. “I’m not banned from competing. I’m a woman. And I’m a martial artist. I could do it.”</p><p>“Oh, thank god.” Akari took a deep breath and leaning back from where she was sitting. “I thought I’d have to get desperate.”</p><p>“I’m not grace,” Akane gestured to Ranma and then toward Kodachi “or grace 2.0. But it’s first and foremost a martial arts thing, right. The goal is to beat the opponent, not appeal to judges, right?”</p><p>Ryouga and Kodachi exchanged a look that wasn’t entirely encouraging.</p><p>“It…should not be an issue.” Kodachi assured her…or at least attempted to. “I doubt there’ll be a panel of judges for a single match.”</p>
<hr/><p>It was some hours later that saw Akane skating a lap around the local rink. She hadn’t been skating in a couple of years and had never used the specialist skates figure skaters used. On a circuit she passed by where Ranma was sitting and eating the mall nachos and drinking a soda. A moment later she passed Akari, moving a bit slow but still steady on the ice. Toward the center of the rink, however Kodachi and Ryouga were warming up.</p><p>Akane could tell they were being cautious, practicing moves that neither had made much use of for a while. It was not so different from her and Akari, but while they were doing laps, the other two were doing spins and tracing designs in the surface of the ice. At one point, Kodachi got a little ambitious and did a simple jump and a short axel. Her landing was a little less steady than Akane was accustomed to seeing from her, but she was able to move back into other maneuvers almost immediately.</p><p>Eventually, Kodachi swung about, doing a circuit through both Akari and Akane, she gestured for Akari to follow and then sidled right next to Akane moving in time with her before stealing a small kiss and spinning away with a come hither wave. She pulled to a stop in the middle of the rink and stood there beside Ryouga as the other two girls worked their way over. Akane didn’t have too much trouble, but once she was stopped, Akari quite visibly had difficulty staying still, at one point slipping and gripping hard to Ryouga in order to not fall.</p><p>“All right, then,” Kodachi said. “Your opponent is a genius on the ice, but she is not facing you on her preferred terrain.”</p><p>“What’s that?” Akane asked.</p><p>“A paired match,” the gymnast said.</p><p>“Until recently, Shiratori was part of the acclaimed Golden Pair who went undefeated through several matches.”</p><p>“She won’t be able to get to the heights she prefers without a partner to propel her.” Kodachi said. “But she is still dangerous in her own right. You’ll have to be ready for bladed kicks and attempts to disrupt your momentum. She’ll use the walls as weapons and try to dizzy you with trying to track her. However, before we continue, I have a question.”</p><p>“Wait, you’re the coach. What question can you have?”</p><p>“What is she doing here?” the gymnast pointed toward Akari.</p><p>“This is my fault! I have to show solidarity.”</p><p>“Err, Akari, that means Kodachi and I splitting attention between you and Akane.”</p><p>“I this case, I’ll be focusing my attention on my darling Akane so that she is prepared. You can do what you…”</p><p>Kodachi was interrupted by the sound of a klaxon. “Please clear the rink for the next few minutes.”</p><p>They looked toward the side and saw a small horde of people in hockey jerseys skate out alongside one figure in a pink dress.</p><p>“That’s her!” Akari pointed. </p><p>“We’d better get off the ice.” Ryouga said, gesturing.</p><p>“Get in a position to watch.” Kodachi said as she skated backwards to watch the way things shaped up. She almost missed the three people taking a seat at a table alongside the rink. She paused a moment, examining the three before continuing to skate off the ice and sat down beside Akane on the other side of Ranma. “We have a problem.”</p><p>“What is it?” Ranma asked.</p><p>The sound of bell went off and the hockey players started to stream in, clubs swinging. The woman in the center smiled and spun into a triple axel landing with a spin low to the ground knocking the legs out from under her massed opponents. Akane was impressed at the girls’ fighting skills but then started to realize that the hockey players weren’t pressing the offensive as much as they could have.</p><p>“Are they going easy on her?”</p><p>Kodachi leaned in and pointed towards the table of three she’d noted earlier. “Look over there.”</p><p>Everyone turned their attention to the table and watched as the three people sitting there lifted cards with numbers on them after each jump and move Azusa made in the course of her practice. As they did so, they pressed a button in front of them and the rink score board showed an average and set time to the clock.</p><p>Ryouga sighed. “Each trick is judged and, depending on the points, the skater is granted a grace period of up to 1 second in which their opponent can’t touch them.”</p><p>“How is that fair?” Akari asked.</p><p>“It is not.” Kodachi said.</p><p>As they watched, Azusa chained moves and strikes, with her opponents only rarely getting a chance to respond. The number of her opponents slowly whittled down until all of them were lying scattered about the rink. The woman in pink did a swift and graceful curtsey and then burst into a celebratory giggle before skating over to the edge of the rink, dodging unconscious hockey players as she did so.</p><p>“Ah! It’s little Azusa’s opponent for her next match!” the woman said. “Are you practicing?”</p><p>“I…I’m here to support my chosen champion,” Akari said quickly, pointing to Akane.</p><p>The figure skater blinked and twisted her head to the side before reaching out and grabbing Akane’s arm and squeezing on it with wide eyes. “It’s like steel cable.”</p><p>“Err excuse me, can I have my arm back?” Akane asked, pulling it out of the skater’s hands.</p><p>“Are you sure you want to fight little Azusa with muscles like that?” the woman asked, doing a short loop and then tilting her head the other way while blinking cutely. “Azusa wouldn’t try to fight you on wrestling mat but you want to fight Azusa in the rink?”</p><p>“It’s not like you don’t have muscle tone.” Akari protested taking a long look at Azusa’s legs.</p><p>“Oh, you like little Azusa’s legs?” She lifted one up, pointing straight past her head.</p><p>“It’s different muscle groups, Akari. But I’ll be fine. Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu does encourage generalized development.”</p><p>“Your funeral.” Azusa shrugged as she twisted about casually. “Where is Azusa’s little Charlotte?”</p><p>“Ummm…” Akari glanced toward Ryouga who crossed his arms.</p><p>“Not here,” he said.</p><p>“Are you bringing judges into this?” Kodachi asked, indicating the table. “That seems a bit overkill for a personal match, doesn’t it?”</p><p>“Little Azusa want this to be a completely fa…” she stopped and blinked, staring at Kodachi for moment and then reaching out swiftly. “Oh! How cute! My little, Marlene?”</p><p>Kodachi blinked, what that was all about while the skater started sliding away across the rink. Then her hair started falling around her head, bangs falling down over her eyes. “Did….did she really just steal my hair band?”</p><p>“Err…yeah.” Ranma said.</p><p>Kodachi’s eyes narrowed and she started to return to the ice before Ranma stepped in front of her. “Kodachi, no.”</p><p>“Breathe in, breathe out.” Akane said from behind.</p><p>The Black Rose listened, breathing in slowly and letting it out, trying to let her anger dissipate and actively squelching visions of showing Azusa what a gymnast could do on the ice.</p><p>“I need a new hairband.” Kodachi said finally. “I’ll be right back. Hibiki can coach you for now.”</p><p>“There were some good ones this way,” Ranma said, taking Kodachi’s hand and leading her further through the shopping center.</p><p>“Anyway, the rink is clearing, can we get some practice going? It looks like I’m going to need to learn some tricks after all.”</p><p>“Yeah,” Ryouga said. “Right, uh, let’s start with the toe-loop I guess.”</p>
<hr/><p>“So, Shiratori is looking to compete again, hmm.” A man said as he looked down at his phone and the picture there. “Against a rank amateur. Ha. Hardly my concern.” He started to put the phone back in his pocket and then it was taken out of his hand and the woman beside him looked through it.</p><p>“Hmm, speaking of has-beens. I see someone I once knew standing beside her opponent.” The woman said.</p><p>“Who might that be?” the man asked recovering his phone and looking closer. “Well, there is a lovely girl there next to that monster and…hmm, oh, I see who you mean now.”</p><p>“Well, Sanzenin, I think we should at least send your old partner a gift, shouldn’t we?”</p><p>“Certainly, my dear, Saginomiya.”</p><p>“So, I’ve figured out who your judges are.” Nabiki said. “One of them is a student from the university, but the other are fully accredited judges, though they don’t participate in too many events over the year.”</p><p>She turned around gestured toward the pictures on her computer screen showing two women, one college aged, and a man with names underneath them. Nabiki pointed toward the younger of the two women. </p><p>“This is Mishima Sayoko, also known as the Queen of Nekomi. She comes from a wealthy family and has a reputation for being a bit…self-important.” </p><p>Then she pointed toward the next woman. “Romanov N. And I did look for her given name but couldn’t find it. Anyway, it looks like she’s judged maybe three events over the past five years. As a consequence, nobody’s much sure how she judges either.”</p><p>“And last, Toriaka Ando,” Nabiki said. “Who is also Azusa’s uncle and has a reputation for scoring rather strictly.”</p><p>“So, she’s stacked the judges with people who won’t appreciate my look or my lack of style.” Akane said. “This’ll be fun.”</p>
<hr/><p>“No…no, I found a champion to stand in for me grandfather.” Akari said over the phone. “I’m sure everything will be fine. It just sort of spiraled out of control. I was…covering for a friend and panicked. I can’t really say, grandfather. It’s not mine to talk about. No, this sort of thing won’t happen again.”</p><p>She hung up the phone and flopped back on her bed and took a deep breath.</p><p>“Right there beside. Your nerdy best friends and a DM to…”</p><p>The song was interrupted as she picked up her phone again.</p><p>“Hello, Mr. Hibiki?”</p><p>“Uh…hi, Akari. Where am I?”</p><p>“Let me put you on speaker and check.” She scrolled through several screens and found the phone locator app. “You’re in Ikebukuro.”</p><p>“How did I get here?”</p><p>“I don’t know, Mr. Hibiki. Where were you trying to get to?”</p><p>“There’s a hotel across from the rink and I was going to stay there until your match.”</p><p>“That’s very nice of you, ummm…there’s a bus station about ten meters to your left…no you’ve turned too far, they’re go. You’ll want bus number 501 to get to the rink.”</p><p>“Oh, it’ll just take me right there?”</p><p>“Well, uh, busses go to a lot of different places, but one of the stops is the rink. Hey, do you think there’s something…going on with Miss Kunou?”</p><p>“Well, yeah, lifetime bans don’t happen very often and…”</p><p>“No, no, I mean with her and Ranma and Akane.”</p><p>“Oh, they’re definitely…dating. I, uh thought that was obvious.”</p><p>Akari sat up on her bed with an expression of surprise. “Wait, you mean a love-triangle? Competing over who? I mean they seem too friendly for that.”</p><p>“Not competing, they’re dating. All three of them, together.”</p><p>Akari stared for a moment. “Wait, what? How does…? Is that a thing people do?”</p><p>“Some people.” Ryouga said. “My parents wer…aren’t monogamous either.”</p><p>Akari was silent for a long moment. “Huh. Oh! Your stop is coming up.”</p>
<hr/><p>Ryouga slipped the phone into his pocket and looked up at the hotel with relief. It was right across the street. As long as he didn’t panic then he should just be able to get to the rink without worrying about getting lost. He turned about and, indeed, he could even see the rink from the hotel’s main entrance. Everything should be…</p><p>“Huh, what’s that?” He asked as he saw movement in the parking lot of the closed shopping center where the rink was. “Probably just security.”</p><p>He walked into the hotel, trying not to rush and thanking the simple and low budget construction of the place. There weren’t too many twists and turns to get confused in and as long as he kept focused, he wouldn’t get lost in a room with one door. He took his time and managed to reach his assigned room and set his stuff down. Looking out the window he was relieved to see that even his window looked out on the shopping center…and he again saw movement in the shopping center below. Though this time he noted the figure moving about actively looking to avoid attention from a passing car.</p><p>“That’s weird.”</p><p>Frowning, he closed the curtain again and went back into the hallway without really thinking about it and eventually down into the parking lot from which he could take a couple of leaps across the highways and come down into the shopping center’s parking lot. Whoever had been poking around wasn’t outside anymore, but he did see a door ajar leading into the building and frowned. Slipping quietly through the door he listened and heard the sound of some scrabbling about further on. Tracking on the sound, he came upon the sight of a tall woman with long white hair examining the rink as she chuckled to herself, eventually bursting into a shrill laughter.</p><p>“What the heck is this lady up to?” he asked as he shifted forward…and tripped over a mop bucket that had somehow been left out in the open.</p><p>The loud crash and splash of water attracted attention and it wasn’t much longer before Ryouga was fighting his way free of his clothing and looking up at the now gigantic form of the woman that he’d been watching earlier. She bent down to look at him and snatched him up by the bandana that was now around his neck.</p><p>“Hmm, what’s this? You must be the supposed prize this whole thing revolves around. My, my, my what a lucky find I’ve made.”</p>
<hr/><p>Ryouga huffed and lashed out with his tiny hooves as he hung in her hands which only seemed to provoke more of her laughter.</p><p>Akari looked around the rink as she arrived and nervously noted that Ryouga wasn’t anywhere to be seen. She started to pull her phone out to track his but stopped as she noted Akane, Kodachi, and Ranma were already present and remembered what Ryouga had said about thinking it was obvious they were dating. So, she took a few minutes to just watch them before making her presence known. For a few minutes she was frustrated with her inability to figure out exactly what Ryouga had seen.</p><p>Then someone told a joke and Kodachi burst out laughing, leaning forward to practically hang off Akane’s neck and shoulders and then leaning back and letting herself fall back into Ranma, Akane following her so that the three were small pile of laughter for a few seconds before they could recover themselves. For as long as she’d known Akane, the other woman had liked her space and invited people into it only carefully. And here she was just sharing that with two other people freely and openly. From what she’d seen of Ranma he was similar. </p><p>She felt the blood rise to her face as she realized that she’d been expecting to catch them doing something sexual under cover. Instead it was simple intimacy that she’d seen and spied on…and felt terrible about doing so. The agriculture student took a moment to take a deep breath and gather herself before walking over.</p><p>“Hello, so, um…today’s the day?” she said, sitting down.</p><p>“Yeah,” Akane noted. “Have you heard from Ryouga? I thought he’d be here.”</p><p>“He asked me to help him get to his hotel the night before,” Akari said, remembering what she’d been about to do and started looking for messages and sending a text herself before tracking Ryouga’s phone. “It says his phone’s here.”</p><p>A man walked up beside her as she started to wander off tracking Ryouga’s phone. “Miss Unryuu?”</p><p>“Err, yes?”</p><p>“We have your seat ready for the match, if you will follow me.”</p><p>“But the match isn’t for another hour yet.” Akari said.</p><p>“Ah, there must have been a miscommunication somewhere.” The man said. “The match is in fifteen minutes.”</p><p>Akane almost choked on her fries when she heard the man. “What?! Since when?”</p><p>Kodachi scoffed. “I had not thought Shiratori would stoop to these tactics.”</p><p>“I’ll go hurry up to get changed.” Akane said, leaning over to kiss Kodachi and Ranma lightly before running off with her bag. “Be back in a few minutes I guess.”</p><p>“Be careful, if she ain’t just a spoiled brat, there could be more like this coming.”</p>
<hr/><p>Akari was wringing her hands as she sat down in the gaudy throne with her name on it that had been set up for her. It was just oh so embarrassing, but given her other worries at the moment, she almost didn’t notice it. The chair settled with an audible click that was quickly lost as Akari tapped her foot nervously.</p><p>Her expression became more relieved as she saw a table wheeled out carrying a large trophy to which was chained a familiar black pig wearing a pink band about the chest. Though it quickly turned to anger as she watched Shiratori Azusa skate out to the center of the rink to meet Akane.</p><p>“Oh, that woman."</p>
<hr/><p>“Little Azusa think you’re playing no fair.” Azusa said as she came up to meet Akane in the center. Her eyes drifted toward the table and trophy being pushed out. </p><p>“We’re not playing fair?” Akane said incredulously.</p><p>“But at least you brought Azusa’s little Charlotte this time!”</p><p>Then the figure skater started skating back to the opposite side of the rink, leaving Akane to look puzzled at the pig and then back to the figure skater.</p><p>“This is all kinds of bad.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>The conversation here isn't so much a pin drop moment for Akari as it is a moment in which the pin is picked up and held over the ground. In any case, I had a lot of false starts on this chapter, and it's still a lot shorter than expected. I considered pressing to the actual first half of the match, but I think I'll save the match for later.</p><p>As to Ryouga, my thought here is that Ryouga's parents were all about each other...when they were in the same place but also not concerned if their partner had other relationships when they were apart for extended periods of time. In this reality, Ryouga has a fair number of siblings by other parents which I may or may not introduce later.</p><p>Now, those of us that are reading this are privy to things like what genre of story this is, what tropes are likely to be involved, and actual scenes that we've seen/written they haven't. So, Akari is distracted and not really used to having to deal with stuff going eight ball. This sort of foul play falls within Kodachi's realm of basic expectation. She's disappointed Shiratori is doing it, but hasn't thought that Shiratori isn't doing it yet. Ranma and Akane have dealt with a bit more weirdness and are thus a bit more genre savy but still don't have all the info they need to know what's going on.</p><p>Also, I may have included too many characters in this section. Ah well.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0009"><h2>9. False Flower</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>A match most meddled.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Akane and Azusa slid out onto the ice, the smaller woman picking up speed quickly and leaping into a triple spin to land in a sliding kick that interrupted Akane’s attempts to unseal herself. She caught the kick on her forearms narrowly avoiding the sharp edges of the blade. Before she could respond with her own attack, the scoreboard showed a clock counting down hundredths and tenths of seconds. Looking over toward the judges, Akane saw signs showing nine, eight point five, and another nine. Azusa pushed off and started spinning back around.</p><p>The Tendou woman skated around, hands moving to pressure points as she eyed Azusa coming in. As the other woman came close, Akane leaped out into a short axel. Upon landing she saw the scores go up, ranging from a five to a seven point five. But it was enough to ruin Azusa’s approach and the smaller woman swung around, sticking her tongue out and working into a spin bending low and then high again. She lifted off her left foot and landed again just as Akane finished unsealing herself.</p><p>Azusa smiled as she finished earning herself another brief period of safety while her opponent simply continued poking herself and had only yet done one trick. Well, she’d warned the other woman this wasn’t her sort of fight. Jumping out into the air, she landed again within reach of Akane, planning a double kick this time. At least until she contacted Akane the first time and the electrical shock ran down her body and sent her rocketing back from the other woman.</p><p>“What hit little Azusa?”</p><p>“And it looks like Shiratori Azusa has encountered the move that has garnered Tendou Akane some growing attention in the streetfighting world. Freya has appeared!”</p><p>Akane pushed herself forward to pursue, looking to take advantage before the other woman could recover. The smaller woman pulled away from her, pushing backwards and leaping backward.</p><p>“Go Akane!” Akari yelled from her seat.</p><p>A shiver worked through the ice, bringing Akane pause as she waited for the tremor to pass. Ahead of her, Azusa landed and stumbled her landing. She looked confused for a moment and then saw the various scores the judges were giving, mostly low with a standout high score from the Russian judge.</p><p>The figure skater rushed out and lashed out with her leg, watching the lightning leap up from Akane’s arm to her leg the kick was blocked. Again, the shock worked up her body and sent her skidding across the ice and barely recovering her feet before slamming into the wall. </p><p>“Hmph. That’s not cute.” </p><p>Akane slid in and punched out as Azusa dodged away and leaped again into a simple lutz using the small period of protection that afforded her to build speed and distance before starting on another circle back in her opponent’s direction. The Tendou woman was heading her way and Azusa could already see her preparing for a trick. Rookies always telegraphed quite a bit. The figure skater leaped into a triple salchow to come into range as Akane leaped into a simple lutz. Azusa smiled and twisted her momentum sharply performing an axel and then spinning low as Akane’s protection ran out. This time Azusa’s blade struck into her opponent’s.</p><p>This time Akane felt herself crashing to the ice and wrapped in lightning as she skidded across the ice in a line of steam while Azusa bowed and spun away before sticking her tongue out at the Tendou woman. Akane smiled as she pulled herself back to her feet.</p><p>“Good, wouldn’t want this to be too easy.”</p><p>Azusa swung around again once again coming into another chain of tricks. </p><p>“Look out, Akane!”</p><p>Akane started to leap into her own and stopped as she felt another tremor through the ice. Azusa landed in the midst of it and nearly twisted her ankle as she landed on the unexpected motion. This drew a quick look toward her feet and a glare at Akane.</p>
<hr/><p>“Shiratori is not performing as well as she should be.” Kodachi said, voice slow and uncertain as Azusa flubbed another landing.</p><p>“There’s something weird going on.” Ranma agreed. Looking across the rink, Saotome’s eyes settled on the table carrying the trophy and the black pig that was currently chewing on his chains. “I think he knows something. Be right back.”</p><p>Kodachi nodded and looked aside to kiss Ranma on the cheek briefly before looking back at the ongoing match. Akane saw the low kick coming this time and fortified her stance against it but doing so prevented her from getting a good strike in on Azusa before she turned into another trick and brief period of protection.</p><p>Ranma worked around the rink instead of leaping over it, not wanting to distract either Akane or Azusa. By the time the pig was close enough to touch, he’d successfully shattered the chains around his mid-section and hopped off the table.</p><p>“Hey, Ryouga.” Ranma said, attracting the pig’s attention. “Is that you?” </p><p>The little black pig oinked up at him imperiously before starting to charge away from the rink, Ranma lashed out with his hand and snatched up the pig. “Wait a minute. Come on, let’s find some hot water and clothes.”</p>
<hr/><p>Azusa slid along the ice, raising a small sheet of ice-shavings between her and Akane smirking as each vanished in a crackling pop and shower of sparks across her opponent’s body.</p><p>“Oh no!” </p><p>Another tremor worked out across the ice causing Azusa to stumble and slow her down just long enough for Akane to connect with her side. Azusa hadn’t been struck very often and she was finding that the experience was even more annoying than she remembered. She let the momentum carry her away from her opponent and pushed off the wall trying to build space again between her and Akane and resisting the urge to clutch her own side.</p><p>She twisted about to moving backwards, watching Akane move to intercept her curve. The figure skater was quite aware that she couldn’t handle too many more strikes and yet her opponent still seemed to have endurance to spare. Tendou gathered herself and pushed into the air with a basic leap, no salchow or lutz or anything like it. She was simply moving to attack. Shiratori twisted low and then into a short twist, timed to let Akane rush past her. But the grappler didn’t simply slam into the wall as Azusa had hoped. Instead bouncing off the wall in a short flip and kicking out.</p><p>“You’re going to have to do better than that!”</p><p>Azusa responded by leaning low and kick straight into the grappler’s skates again, once again causing Akane to slam into the ice where she could watch Azusa skate away while sticking her tongue out. </p><p>“Oh, little Azusa can do all sorts of…” </p><p>“Come on Akane!”</p><p>Another of those vibrations worked through the ice, a bit stronger than before this time and Azusa almost felt herself knocked off her feet even while not in the middle of a trick. Akane also found her first attempt to re-gain her feet interrupted and had to make a second.</p>
<hr/><p>Kodachi watched the two dueling skaters stumble again and frowned. She looked around before reaching out to take a one-yen coin off the table nearby and toss it out on the ice. She bent down and leaned forward to watch the coin.</p><p>“Oh no!” Akari’s voice carried over the rink.</p><p>The coin danced a bit and out on the rink, Azusa had another bad landing giving her more mediocre scores, though the Russian judge still seemed to be kind on the scores. Kodachi looked back down at the coin and waited again.</p><p>“Yeah, that’s the way!”</p><p>The one-yen coin danced again, both Akane and Azusa were caught in the middle of tricks, but Akane, sticking to low risk and simple jumps, recovered more easily than the more impressive figure skater caught in the middle of a delicate procedure.</p><p>Kodachi turned to look across the rink towards where Akari was sitting and waited for Akari to either flinch or call it a cheer again.</p><p>“Come on, we’re going to win.”</p><p>The yen-coin danced, and the skaters felt a tremor.</p><p>“Well, isn’t that curious?”</p>
<hr/><p>“Thanks, Ranma.” Ryouga said as he pulled the hello-kitty t-shirt on over his chest. “There’s some lady that was sabotaging stuff. Something about ‘a favor’ for her boyfriend and a ‘gift’ for an old friend.”</p><p>“Sabotage?” Ranma said. “What kind of sabotage?”</p><p>“She was on the phone rescheduling everything for one. But she had some sort of machines she’d put on the rink.”</p><p>“Kodachi said Azusa wasn’t performing as well as she should be. Is she still around?”</p><p>“Well, she was taking selfies when I was being carted out on that table.” He said. “Maybe she’s still in the prep area?”</p><p>Ryouga pointed and then Ranma reached out to grab his hand and adjusted it to point toward the actual backstage prep area. </p><p>“All right, let’s check it out and then talk to the judges.”</p><p>Ryouga nodded. The two walked out of the restroom and started to walk across, glancing toward the rink where Azusa was desperately avoiding Akane’s strikes and disengaging into another wide circle as she worked on another plan for an offensive approach. Ranma saw that Akane was analyzing the approach and planning her own response and then they were at the door and opening it out to see a large gathering of men in hockey jerseys and padding with a clear black rose motif.</p><p>“All right! We’re going to go out there, and we’re going to paste that shoplifting bimbo, right?” a man in the center asked.</p><p>“Right!”</p><p>“And whose name are we doing it in again?”</p><p>“The Black Rose.”</p><p>“The Black Rose,” Ryouga said as if it were a revelation. “That must have been the who the white-haired woman was. Man, she’s infamous. She’s…”</p><p>“Kodachi.” Ranma said. “The Black Rose is Kodachi.”</p><p>“What?”</p><p>Ranma stepped forward and whistled shrilly. “Hey! Which of you idiots really want to say my girlfriend hired you?”</p>
<hr/><p>Akari winced as Akane barely ducked one of Azusa’s blade strikes but wasn’t quite able to connect with the lithe skater before she leaped into a trick and landed into another period of protection. Though again she stumbled, making her wonder if Azusa really deserved her glowing reputation. She was so wrapped up in the match that she didn’t notice Kodachi until the woman spoke up.</p><p>“Don’t be alarmed, but if I were you, I wouldn’t move.”</p><p>Akari flinched away and looked toward the gymnast, blinking in surprise. Out on the ice, Azusa’s skillful evasion turned into a scrambling retreat as the tremor through the rink disrupted her motion. “Oh my god, where’d you come from? And why shouldn’t I move.”</p><p>Kodachi started to bend down to examine the throne. “Every time you thumb the arms of the chair or shake it much, the ice on the rink has a tremor.”</p><p>“What?” Akari said. </p><p>She started to jump up out of the chair as if it were burning her. </p><p>“Don’t try to…!” Kodachi held out her hands warningly.</p><p>Her hands pushed off the arms and her butt left the chair, at which point an electrical shot tore through Akari’s body until she slammed back into the throne and then manacles clapped up around her ankles and wrists while she was recovering.</p><p>“What just happened?” Akari asked under her halo of newly frizzy hair.</p><p>“Electric shock when you tried to leave the chair.” Kodachi said. “It is a clever but cowardly trap. The mark of someone who lacks the will to compete themselves. At least I put myself front and center when I was so devious as this.”</p><p>The gymnast started to tap experimentally at the manacles now trapping Akari in the chair and pulled her hand back when a brief shock passed into her fingers.</p><p>“Ca…can you get me o…owwwww!!”</p><p>Akari convulsed as another electric shock passed through her, shaking the chair and sending another tremor throughout the rink. Kodachi quickly glanced about and noticed the judges had just entered a score. Beside her Akari tried to catch her breath when the shock ended. Briefly, Kodachi considered running toward the judges table and calling their attention to the situation but stopped herself as a horrible thought occurred to her.</p><p>She lifted a foot up from the floor she was standing on and immediately set it back down as another electrical shock passed through Akari.</p><p>“Please…don’t…do that…again.” Akari said.</p><p>“It doesn’t seem to be intended to kill you, but no, I won’t do it again.”</p><p>Elsewhere, they heard a sudden outcry at the sight of a hockey player being thrown out the backstage door followed by Ryouga and Ranma battling a small army of people wearing black-rose motifs. Above them balloons started to burst dropping black flower petals all across the rink and those watching the match. Kodachi reached out and caught one of the petals and rubbed it between her fingers as the sour expression on her face grew more so.</p><p>“Oh, now I get it.” Kodachi said.</p><p>“What, because of the flowers? What are they?”</p><p>“What they’re supposed to be is black rose petals.” Kodachi said before holding out her fingers to reveal the black ink covering them and the dirty white petal between the fingers of her other hand. “What they are is chopped up white lily petals covered in ink.”</p><p>So, saying, Kodachi examined the chair.</p><p>“What do white lilies have to do with anything?” Akari asked.</p>
<hr/><p>Akane did a double take as Ranma somersaulted over a table, knocking over drinks and coming out of the roll much smaller and with brighter colored hair. Her partner then planted two feet into the face-mask of a hockey player and tossed a second one into a pillar. Then Ryouga backhanded another of the small army, sending him flying back into several others.</p><p>“What the hell is going?”</p><p>“You’re cheating!” Azusa said, skating past. “That’s what’s going on.”</p><p>“Whatever’s going on it’s not us!” </p><p>Azusa stuck her tongue out at Akane.</p><p>Akane pursued and watched as a trio of hockey players managed to get past the two martial artists devastating their numbers. She prepared to face their attack but saw them shift directions to avoid her and beeline for Azusa. Snarling, Akane pushed herself to new speed and barreled through the three of them. </p><p>“Stay out of this!”</p><p>Another hockey player leaked past Ranma and Ryouga, getting a chance at charging in from behind Azusa, but the figure skater nimbly dodged away and shoved the hockey player in Akane’s direction watching as Akane backhanded the thug and sent him over the wall where Ranma caught him and slammed him into two others.</p><p>“You reschedule the match! You shake the rink! You bring thugs!” Azusa protested. “You…what’s wrong with her?”</p><p>Azusa came to a stop and looked at where Akari was sitting in the chair with her hair sticking out and trying very hard not to move too much. Akane stopped beside her and looked as well, recognizing the look of someone that had just had a close encounter with electrical current.</p><p>“Akari, are you.”</p><p>“Don’t come over here!” Kodachi called out drawing attention to where she was kneeling down. </p><p>“The chair’s trapped.” Akari said. “It keeps shocking me.”</p><p>“The floor’s rigged and I’m already stuck here. Akane-darling…” </p><p>Azusa absent-mindedly leaned and shifted a foot out, tripping the man that had just tried to attack her at the same time Akane, equally casually, slammed her elbow into his now vulnerable back to slam him into the ice.</p><p>“…ah, you have it handled.” Kodachi turned back to the chair. </p><p>Azusa bent down to turn over the hockey player at their feet and then jumped up onto his chest and pulled the mask off. “Ahh! Kikki! Little Azusa hasn’t seen you in so long!” She paused. “Wait…didn’t you stay working for Mikki?”</p><p>“Stupid bit…”</p><p>“Shiratori.” Azusa looked at her blinked and then hopped up off the thug’s body as Akane nudged his body and he started convulsing from the electrical shock. </p><p>“Little Azusa thanks you.”</p><p>“Excuse me,” a voice called out. “Are you all finished here, I thought were called to officiate a match not a circus.”</p><p>Akane and Azusa turned toward the three judges where Mishima was looking down to her phone and scrolling through it as the other two judges looked at her like she was insane. The young woman looked up and saw the two skaters staring at her and pointing to where Akari was locked into her chair and Sayoko blanched. “Oh, uh…nevermind. I’ll just go back and sit down.”</p><p>“You need any help there?” Romanov asked, looking down toward Kodachi.</p><p>“No, I believe I’ve found it…ahhh.” A moment later, the manacles popped open.</p><p>Akari almost tried to leap out of the chair again but stopped herself. “Can I move now?”</p><p>Kodachi stood up and stretched out. “Oh yes, it’s disarmed.”</p><p>And with that Akari was out like a shot, not noticing as she ran onto the ice, sliding across it to be caught by Azusa.</p><p>“The chair was rigged to send a vibration through the ice whenever Akari cheered or winced or moved much.” Kodachi said. “Then it locked her in when she figured it out and sent a shock whenever the judges scored a move…which would cause her to shake the chair and thus the ice. I imagine this is all supposed to look like I did it to help Akane.”</p><p>There was a loud scream from out among the tables and Kodachi looked past to where Ryouga and Ranma were looking about for any leftovers.</p><p>“Oh dear, they’ve already finished.”</p><p>“Hmph.” Toriaka looked about and then toward Azusa and Akane. “I think we’ll call this match off in the face of all of this.”</p><p>With that he turned around, walked to the table and started collecting his things. The red-headed Russian woman watched him go and shook her head. “You dealt with the rink shaking pretty well. I thought it was part of the match or I’d have stepped in earlier. I’d offer to judge the rematch, but I’ll probably be busy.” She looked up toward the time and nodded. “Speaking of which, I should be going.”</p><p>“Is everybody all right?” Ranma asked as she and Ryouga made their way over and Akane started resealing her curse.</p><p>“Akari!” Ryouga said. “What happened to you?”</p><p>“I don’t like fancy chairs.” Akari said as she moved from holding onto Azusa and struggled her way over to hold tight to Ryouga. “Or metal chairs. I’m never going to sit in a fancy metal chair ever again.”</p><p>Kodachi frowned and stepped up to the red-head frowning down at her. “You didn’t save even one of those charlatans for me to punish!”</p><p>“What? Oh, shit! Sorry, about that. I just sort of …saw red.”</p><p>"Parts of you shall be turning red." Kodachi said threateningly. She noticed Ranma's face matching her partner's hair-color and glanced around at other people around them, including the smirk on Akane. "Have I said something sexual without meaning to?"</p><p>As they were calming down, Azusa flopped down on the ice and started bawling. “Little Azusa just wanted a match! There haven’t been any matches all year!”</p><p>“What?” Kodachi asked. “There’ve been plenty of figure-skating martial arts tournaments.”</p><p>“Mikado always did the paperwork.” Azusa said. “And…and…Little Azusa’s paperwork is always wrong and always late and I never get a match! Azusa just want a partner again so she can skate like before.”</p><p>“Wait.” Akari tried to flatten her hair down. She started to walk out to Azusa again, once again forgetting about the ice and having to hold tight to Ryouga to prevent herself from crashing on her butt. “Wait. You did all this because you were….hard up for a martial arts match? Who would think that’s reasonable?”</p><p>“Well, not really reasonable,” Akane said. “I’d just ask someone straight up.”</p><p>“Yeah, but grabbing random people and challenging them is a bit…heavy.” Ranma said.</p><p>“Sometimes when I’ve been on the road a long time,” Ryouga said nodding.</p><p>Kodachi just shook her head and said “Four. Years.” </p><p>Akari nodded as she looked around. “Right. Okay, I get it.” </p><p>Then she sighed and gingerly worked her way out over the ice to where Azusa was. </p><p>“If you want someone to be your partner and help with the paperwork I can do that.”</p><p>“Akari you want to rephrase th…” Ryouga started to say.</p><p>Azusa rocketed back to her feet and circled about Akari, looking at her critically. “Okay! Little Azusa will train you to be her partner! We’ll be so cute on the ice together!”</p><p>“Wait, what?” Akari asked, pupils contracted as her voice turned small.</p><p>Kodachi shook her head and then looked toward Ryouga and Ranma. "I don't suppose you saw a tall woman with white hair and fondness for taking photos of herself?"</p><p>"I did, but looks like she left when the match started." Ryouga said. "Who is she, some martial artist with a grudge against you?"</p><p>"She's no martial artist, she only works through traps. She doesn't know the taste of battle. But she still likes to style herself..."</p>
<hr/><p>"Saginomiya Asuka, the White Liliy. How was your game this afternoon?"</p><p>“The match was a total shambles, dear.” The white-haired woman said. “Though I suspect my old friend knows I was involved.”</p><p>“Well, what’s the fun if you don’t let old friends in on the joke?”</p><p>“Very true. And what hearts did you break my dear, Sanzenin?"</p><p>"A silly girl or two. A friendship on the rocks. The usual fun."</p><p>"And shall our next distraction be individual or paired, dear?"</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>As a note. I'm writing as if Azusa as Ace. Which doesn't mean the thought of an Akari/Ryouga/Azusa poly isn't in consideration however. </p><p>As to the implication of Akari now being stuck in pairs figure skating with Azusa...she's not stuck...all she has to do is tell Azusa she meant she'd do the paperwork, but Akari's not going to do that.</p><p>I considered having Mikado and Saginomiya appear more directly, but I sort of want to save them for later.</p><p>End result, this chapter is again a bit shorter than my prior ones, but it is sort of acting like a part two of the one before, so there was that.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0010"><h2>10. A Good Day</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>A day in the life.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The first part of every morning after waking up was training. She had to stay in fighting trim. That meant taking a run around the neighborhood. Recently she’d been seeing signs that she wasn’t the only martial artist around doing this. Maybe at some point they’d cross paths, but currently they seemed to be running sometime in the evening. The run was good for keeping up her foot speed and leaps as well as coordination. Then it was back to the house.</p><p>The next thirty minutes were spent sparring with the ghosts in the house, who were the reason the house was so cheap to rent in the first place. It had been a long year trying to convince them not to try and kill her or anybody else that happened by, but eventually she’d established a sort of peace with them. They made a good security system if nothing else, they’d made short work of the cursed bell she’d come home with by accident the one time. There was still the issue of finding hair all over the place in the house and getting things delivered was still an issue. The mailman dropped things off at the gate and fled as if his life depended on it no matter how much she explained that it was fine now and running wouldn’t help anyway.</p><p>Once the ghosts had settled back into the house for a bit, it was strength training and then hand speed. Weights for martial artists of her caliber were relatively easy to find though a bit pricey. They also required storing in a place where dropping them wouldn’t put a hole in the floor. No sense antagonizing her spectral housemates by damaging the property. The hand speed training doubled as morning snack before preparing an actual breakfast and the roasted chestnuts were a good offering to her stomach while she cooked the pancakes.</p><p>Normally at this time she’d be getting ready for work, but today she had the evening shift so she could run some errands. She had a dead day set aside in her class schedule just to be able to handle this sort of thing. In any case, since she had a little bit of time before she could do those, she sat down on the computer and went about her “hunt.” Last time she’d found trace of her quarry the woman had been heading to Singapore for a tournament. By the time she’d arrived there the tournament had been over and done with and the trail was cold. </p><p>This, she explained to her elders, was a total accident and simply unfortunate. The three days she’d spent lounging in a Thai hotel were entirely because she couldn’t find a boat to Singapore, honest. She certainly hadn’t just woke up one morning with absolutely no energy or will to move and just stayed that way for a few days. Maybe things would have been different if the original argument had been over something more than just a prize feast. Especially not when she'd encountered half a dozen atrocities since then that really put her grievance in a poor light. But all that was neither here nor there.</p><p>In any case, after missing her quarry at Singapore, and spending a week there among the sights just to make sure she wasn’t hanging around, came the decision to head to Japan and center her hunt there. The quarry was Japanese after all and even if they had been going more south and west, certainly the homeland would call. All she had to do was keep an eye on the tournaments in the area and wait. She maybe should have looked at a division other than duelists, but to date no one had called her on it so she must have been doing something right. There was a tournament coming up in Hokkaido and she quietly went to a side forum and placed her bet on the pool for Hibiki to arrive about three minutes before his first match and then set about registering herself.</p><p>Hunting activities finished it was time to attend to her errands for the day, after getting dressed for work, of course. The powder blue blouse was a bit thin for her taste, but autumn temperatures hadn’t set in yet, so that was fine. She pulled on her white slacks underneath it, her boss might chide her for not wearing a skirt later, but whatever. Then she bundled her purple hair into a bun that hid the immense length of it in a package that was both cute and “work appropriate”. The name tag with the kanji for drugs marking it as coming from a pharmacy went into her pocket. No need to attract attention early.</p><p>Work clothes didn’t really do well with martial artist means of transport, so she walked the two kilometers to the Yokubenimaru supermarket and went inside for some ramune soda and to wait in line at the photomat. When her turn came up, she sat down and in the booth with a smile and waited for the photos to be displayed on the screen and approved them. Then, she just took a few more for fun, posing in silly ways and applying a few filters before stepping out and leaving the booth open for the next person. Then it was about five hundred meters to the subway station and time to wait for the train taking her where she needed to go.</p><p>The train ride was mostly uneventful, aside from the one fellow whose hand she had to crush. After he left, there was a nice conversation with a goddess and her boyfriend. She wasn’t entirely sure whether or not they realized that she recognized the goddess for what she was, but that didn’t matter. They went to the same university as her so they talked rumors and class-stories until her stop came and she stepped off.</p><p>The young woman took an envelope out of her purse, these damn clothes had no proper pockets, and checked to make sure the fee, photographs and everything else were all present. Then she walked in under the sign reading “Immigration Bureau of Japan” and stood in line as she read about the crazy adventures of a mecha pilot and a genius high school student on her kindle. She reached the front of the line and handed over the money, photographs and the documents of residence, took a slip of paper with a number on it and then went to go sit down and continue reading.</p><p>“Xian pu.” The name was called out over the intercom about fifteen minutes later and she stood up to head for the counter and the smiling young man there. “Oh, there you are. You know this is your third year in a row coming here. Would you like to take the three-year visa instead of the one-year one?”</p><p>She considered that for a moment before answering. Did she want to get her hopes up no one would come? “I don’t know. Maybe?”</p><p>“Well, here’s the postcard, please write your address on it and we’ll send it in the mail when your new resident’s card is ready.”</p><p>Xian pu nodded and bent forward to fill the address out and then hand it over.</p><p>“Have a nice day!”</p><p>“So far it good one,” she confirmed, nodding. She turned around and walked out the office with a cheerful wave, determined to just completely ignore the minor grammar flub she’d just made.</p><p>Lunch was McDonald’s, not the best food in the world, but it was at a convenient place between here and work. Also, they didn’t mind if she hung out and red for an hour or so and they had cream sodas. The melon flavored drink topped with whipped cream sat in front of her and slowly dwindled until it was time to head on.</p><p>Xian pu walked in through the front door and waved to some of the regulars before heading into the back and depositing her things in the employee room, clocking in and heading to the cash register. She arguably knew more about medicine and drugs than half the pharmacists the store had hired that year, but she didn’t have her degree or license yet, so she wasn’t yet allowed to work with the actual medicines. </p><p>She narrowed her eyes as the seventh customer of the day came to her till. The costumer was a skinny woman who seemed incapable of speaking in simple Japanese. </p><p>“I should like to report a change of address.” The woman said, pushing forward a filled-out form.</p><p>Xian pu blinked and accepted the paper. “You did not ‘lose’ your medicine again?”</p><p>“The culprit has been identified and I should not have that problem again.”</p><p>“Culprit?” Xian pu considered the phrasing and readjusted her opinion of the young woman.</p><p>“Ahhh…cause, cause, yes. There was a situation in my family home that was…causing issues. My partners…” sudden the rosy glow off the newly dating woman was just shy of being just generally visible “…insisted I move in with them.”</p><p>“I hope you have better luck now. Let’s see, Nerima Ward…” Xian Pu typed in the information and then gave the woman a much warmer smile and waved as she walked to the door.</p><p>The rest of the day was pretty much uneventful aside from one of her ghost housemates making an appearance and almost causing a scene. She spent half her lunch hour chatting with coworkers about how to make proper ramen and then stepped aside with her phone for the second half chatting with the first boss she’d had on coming to Japan and catching him up on where she was in her studies and other things. Then it was back to running the cash register.</p><p>Tomorrow there was neither school nor work, so it felt like a good time for her one-month-party and that would start now. She flipped a coin and called out heads, waiting for it to land in her palm before slapping it to back of her hand. Opening it up she nodded and put it into her pocket as she walked to the subway station. This time she remembered not to break the vending machine with the attempted mugger. Last time it had been a week before they replaced it and the new one hadn’t had any of the drinks she liked. Ten minutes after stepping off the train, she found herself in front of Uncommon Blossoms.</p><p>She slipped her nametag off and into her purse before walking up to the door and getting in line, drawing a surprised look from the men in line ahead of her.</p><p>“Uh, lady, I think you might have the wrong line.”</p><p>“I do not.” Xian pu said.</p><p>“This is for the…”</p><p>“…hostess club. I know.”</p><p>“Oh, uh…” </p><p>Xian pu made a quick shooing motion and then proceeded to ignore him. He swallowed nervously and kept darting glances at her as they progressed in line. That stopped a bit later when another man stepped into line behind her and met her eyes.</p><p>“Oh, hey, Shampoo.” He chuckled. “The coin flip landed heads then this month?”</p><p>“Good to see you, Shinji.” She smiled and turned to face him. “Still can’t pronounce my name?”</p><p>“How’s things going for you?” he asked.</p><p>“They’re going.” She said with a shrug. “How about you?” She looked past him for a moment. “You’re alone tonight?”</p><p>“The girls are arranging me a surprise party. I’m not supposed to know about it. But there’s a something like ten bottles of orange soda in the cupboard.”</p><p>“I think your house will melt into the stuff sometime.” Xian pu said with a chuckle.</p><p>A couple other semi-regulars entered line behind Shinji and the conversation between them started to draw out. Lots of small details about their respective lives but nothing like addresses or phone numbers. Just the sort of things people share when they’ve been in the same line together several times. Then it was her turn to head into the club. She stepped in past the party leaving and smiled as she saw the hostess that had just been freed up.</p><p>Another skinny Japanese woman, though a bit bustier than Miss Kunou, with short brown hair and red-eyes that looked like rubies next to Xian pu’s own dull crimson irises. The woman was wearing a blood-red dress with a low neckline that contrasted nicely with her pale skin. She turned to see Xian pu enter and flashed a welcoming and toothy smile. </p><p>“Welcome back, come to get a little more polish?”</p><p>“You’re the best for that, Nabiki.” She responded. Shinji liked punning off the sound of Xian Pu’s name but Nabiki liked punning off the symbols in her name. </p><p>“And where shall I be entertaining you today?” The vampire asked.</p><p>Xian pu mentally considered the funds she had brought with her before answering. “Private room. Good sake.”</p><p>“Oh, big spender today.” Nabiki said with a smile. “Right this way.”</p><p>“Wait, why does she rate a private room?” Someone asked, pointing at Xian Pu as she walked past.</p><p>“Private rooms are a privilege granted when we think you can tell the difference between a hostess club and a brothel.” The person speaking was a large man clearly serving as a bouncer for the club. “Are we going to have a problem?”</p><p>“No, no, that’s fine.” The man said weakly as he returned to his booth.</p><p>Then Xian Pu was stepping through a door and the sounds of the club were shut away. She walked over to the couch in the middle of the room and sort flopped onto it.</p><p>“Is that a happy melting or a stressed melting?” Nabiki asked as she moved to the cabinets and entered her code to bring the sake bottles and cups out.</p><p>The answer came in Cantonese and Nabiki paused to pay attention and puzzle it out, which caused Xian Pu to push up on her elbows, smile at the vampire and repeat herself. “Sorry, too fast for you? It’s a good day. I renewed my residence and nothing bad happened.”</p><p>Nabiki nodded then and sat beside her, placing the sake on the table and turning to Xian Pu and continuing in Cantonese. “So, what shall we start with?”</p><p>“For now? Sake and Jackie Chan.”</p><p>Xian pu had enough money to be able to monopolize Nabiki for maybe four hours without hurting her tips for the night. It was tempting for a couple of reasons, but as a rule, she preferred to set up her hosts for a good night rather than just push her money to the point they shouldn’t have a bad one. So, it was two hours of over-priced, but good, sake with a lovely woman who knew what was funny about martial arts movies. She left behind a sizeable tip, made up of the allotted money she didn’t have the time or alcohol tolerance to spend and let Nabiki and another hostess pour her into a taxi.</p><p>She didn’t have to teach the taxi driver a lesson, which was good, though she did have to listen to him talk up his daughter for thirty minutes and how a steady girl-friend would be better than wasting so much money on a host club. He dropped her off, starting to warn her about the house until she drunkenly assured him that she was fine and then waved at the ghost watching her through the window. That startled the man a bit and he drove off a bit faster than strictly necessary. Once in the door, she went to the kitchen and drank a few glasses of water before turning on the xbox. She was somewhere in Hyrule before she passed out on her floor and head lying against her giant plush racoon.</p>
<hr/><p>Xian Pu snapped awake and into sobriety some hours later with the sort of low-grade headache that came from something rather more esoteric than just a hangover.</p><p>“Ugh, Kayako, why do I need to be sober in the middle of the night? It’s One-Month-Party time, come on.”</p><p>A moment later the doorbell rang and Xian Pu craned her head to look toward the door and glared at the game-over screen on the TV in front of her before standing up and walking to the door to see who was there, or rather to confirm her suspicion. The door opened up on the sight of Nabiki in her street clothes looking…not happy. The reek of garlic was strong and the other woman’s eyes were bloodshot in a way they shouldn’t be. Plus there was quite a bit of bruising about the face.</p><p>“Again? What happened to you now?” Xian Pu pulled her inside and stepped out looking around the street for any sign of movement.</p><p>“Someone parked a fucking food cart on my route home. I took a corner and got a face full of garlic.” Nabiki usually tried to stick to Cantonese around her, to learn better if no other reason, but was sticking to Japanese now.</p><p>Xian Pu walked back in and the door closed aggressively fast behind her. She walked up to take Nabiki’s face in her hands and looked at it. “You should mist higher off the ground. Inside.”</p><p>The water was already on and in the bathroom when Xian Pu dragged the vampire in and the Furo was comfortably hot. The Chinese woman ignored the spray nozzle and grabbed a towel to lay along the edge of the sink. She moved toward Nabiki and leaned in to take a whiff of her t-shirt before leaning back and pointing. </p><p>“Off. All of it. Give it to me.”</p><p>“You know, we’re not supposed to strip for the clients.” </p><p>The smirk on Nabiki’s face was stretched as she pulled the shirt off and handed it over to Xian Pu before doing the same with her pants and underwear. The martial artist didn’t deign the quip with a response as she took the bundle of garlic infused clothing several rooms away to the laundry room and shut them in the machine before returning. Behind her the machine turned on.</p><p>Nabiki was already sitting on one of the stools so Xian Pu grabbed the now damp towel next to the now off faucet and started carefully but vigorously scrubbing Nabiki’s face and then sitting behind her to start to do the same with her back and shoulders.</p><p>“You’ve been a vampire almost fourteen months now, and this keeps happening. Who is client in here?” She leaned back and gestured to the black lines and bruising all over Nabiki’s back. “How did you get it everywhere? And how long ago did this happen that you’re this bruised?”</p><p>“There’s a learning curve.” Nabiki protested.</p><p>“Learning curve.” Xian Pu huffed. “More bumps in this curve and I’ll follow you home after fixing you up and introduce myself to your sisters. Hello, Nabiki doesn’t know how to walk home from work safely. I should just get your address from your wallet now and call them.”</p><p>“My sisters have enough on their plate right now that I don’t want to worry them”</p><p>“You worry me instead.”</p><p>“No, I didn’t mean it like that, just…”</p><p>Xian Pu leaned up and smelled her hair. “There’s garlic in your hair. Sit still.”</p><p>Nabiki tensed as she felt Xian Pu standing up behind her and heard the faucet turn on again. “You know, it’s funny. Of the six of us at the dojo, three of us have issues with water.”</p><p>“Shh. Sit still.”</p><p>Then it was like a wind rushing past Nabiki’s head. There were some points where she felt a drop or two of water touch her, but never in amounts that would qualify as running water, and it was over in maybe three seconds. Then Xian Pu was holding her head firmly and leaning down to take another sniff.</p><p>“All right, you’re clear. Now turn around.”</p><p>Nabiki turned around and saw the purple haired woman pulling aside the collar of her blouse and exposing her shoulder, gesturing imperiously toward it.</p><p>“I’ve got blood at home, it’ll be fine.”</p><p>“Pig’s blood I bet. You won’t purge your system until near noon. You spend all that time hiding from your sisters? Come on, you know I don’t mind.” She waved at her shoulder again impatiently.</p><p>Nabiki leaned forward to wrap her arms around Xian Pu reluctantly, then her mouth spread open, eyes focusing intently and facial structure distorting. Four of her upper teeth grew long before she sank them into the Chinese woman’s skin, away from any vital blood vessels. Xian Pu tensed up and almost buckled when the fangs pierced her skin. The pain almost immediately vanished to be replaced by a numb sort of floating feeling that started at the shoulder and grew steadily from there. Xian Pu tried to hold on to her tension and worry, but it was all just melting away along with the light at the edge of her vision. She blinked, mouth opening in a long sigh as she held on to Nabiki.</p><p>Then the vampire pulled back and light and feeling started flooding back into Xian Pu’s awareness. She was breathing heavy and reaching up to press against the bite. Nabiki was wiping the back of her hand against her mouth and then licking the traces of blood there. There was a bit more color to the vampire’s face than usual, enough that she almost, could have passed for human if she kept her fangs hidden. Almost. The eyes were still a bit too brightly red to be human. Already the bruising was starting to fade so Xian Pu took a long breath in relief.</p><p>“Remember the first time you let me feed on you, Kayako had to stop me?”</p><p>Xian Pu nodded. “It was a fair trade. She stopped me from killing you after you changed.” She pressed her hand against the bite. “This time you got no where near the danger point.” She pointed a finger at Nabiki, chiding, “You could have taken more.”</p><p>“I’ll be fine.” Nabiki assured her.</p><p>Xian pu stood up and started putting her clothes into the nearby hamper before lowering herself into the furo, waving impatiently for Nabiki to join her. The vampire smiled wryly and slipped her feet in carefully, disturbing the water as little as possible and lowering herself down slowly until she was sitting in the Chinese woman’s lap and wrapped her arms around her neck.</p><p>“You could pull the plug and make all of this water run down the drain with me.”</p><p>“Would not kill you. Just hurt a lot.” Xian Pu said as she reached over to kiss Nabiki’s forehead. “Then I have to fix you again.”</p><p>“Maybe you should meet my sisters,” Nabiki said.</p><p>The Chinese woman shifted a bit. “I find family is not usually thrilled with meeting me. ‘Hello, this is my sometime lover. I’m like knotch number five on her bedpost.’ Certain words come up and it’s been too nice a day to think of those words.”</p><p>“I think Kasumi would be fine with it. I know Akane would be,” Nabiki said.</p><p>The thoughts of meeting Nabiki’s family came through Xian Pu’s mind. What if they were understanding and she could spend more social time with one of her special friends outside the occasional date…</p><p>“And then Xian Pu seduce your sisters too.” The Chinese woman said with a smile.</p><p>“Yeah, Kasumi’s het and Akane’s got two lovers right now,” Nabiki said.</p><p>“I can seduce them too.”</p><p>“You’re deflecting.”</p><p>“You know, that’s the third polycule I heard about today.” Xian Pu continued. “One of the newest pharmacy costumers said she was moving in with her ‘partners’ and I talked to Shinji in the line at the club.”</p><p>“Oh, how’s he doing?”</p><p>“Still problems with his father. But sounds good."</p><p>"And you’re trying to change the subject. So, how about I break a club rule.”</p><p>“Other than don’t sleep with the clients?”</p><p>“And one of your rules. Hey, I’m Tendou,” she emphasized the name. “Nabiki. And you are?”</p><p>"That’s no fair, you trapped me here with your naked vampire wiles. Sitting on my lap and everything.”</p><p>“Well?” Nabiki’s voice was teasing.</p><p>Xian Pu took a long breath and smiled. “Xian Pu of the Joketsuzoku.”</p><p>“Really, no surname?”</p><p>“No surname. There is not enough people in my village to need surnames. We know who we are.”</p><p>“Hmm. Well, Xian Pu of the Joketsuzoku, would you like to meet my family? So maybe when you have a One-Month-Party you can invite people over.”</p><p>Xian Pu pulled her arm from around Nabiki and huffed. “I like my alone time.”</p><p>“Kayako, how many controllers does she have for each of her consoles?” The mirror started to fog over and several numbers started slowly appearing in the glass. “Five, four, seven.”</p><p>“Backups in case I break one.”</p><p>“How about board games?” The number 23 appeared in the mirror. “I see what you mean now, Xian Pu. You don’t fantasize about having company over at all.”</p><p>“It’s Kayako’s house, I’d have to get permission. Right?” There was a distinct lack of response. “Traitor.”</p><p>Nabiki grabbed her arm and wrapped it back around her shoulders, leaning back into her. “So, want to meet my family then?”</p><p>Xian Pu grumbled as Nabiki’s cool body pressed against, contrasting the hot water. “One condition.”</p><p>“And that is?”</p><p>“We talk to your sisters about your accidents.” She felt Nabiki’s pulse stop for a full second.</p><p>“Fine.” She said after a long moment and her heart had started again. “It’s nothing, really.”</p><p>“Kayako how many times this summer has Nabiki come to the house smelling like Italian food?” The number four appeared in the mirror. “Thank you.”</p><p>“How about we table the subject and just kill time till my clothes are clean?” Nabiki suggested. “Any ideas?”</p><p>“I’m not really interested in sex right now, you?”</p><p>“Cuddling maybe.” Nabiki said. “Video games?”</p><p>“Gets in the way of cuddling. Movie?”</p><p>“How about an anime? Nanoha?”</p><p>“Striker S.”</p><p>“Deal.”</p>
<hr/><p>Part of Xian Pu was thinking that this was turning out to be a good day, but another part of her was a bit terrified as she walked up to the door the dojo with Nabiki. Something about the address pricked a sense of familiarity in the back of her mind, but it didn’t feel urgent, more like a vague sense of curiosity.</p><p>She was wearing a windbreaker over a solid purple t-shirt and purple jeans. Her hair was down, but not in the full Joketsuzoku style it would be at a tournament. There was an umbrella in her hand and held up over the two of them. That might have looked odd given there was no rain but she wasn’t in a mood to take chances with Nabiki’s health, even if the vampire had her day-ware on. Plus it reminded Nabiki of part of what was going to be talked about.</p><p>“Okay,” Nabiki said. “Here we are. And we now each know the others full names and where we live, so that’s a thing.”</p><p>She opened the door and gestured for Xian Pu to follow her in, rolling her eyes as the Chinese woman angled the umbrella out to block the sun and waiting for the door to be closed and Nabiki in shadow before snapping it shut.</p><p>“The dining room is through here,” Nabiki said, gesturing forward and looking toward the clock. “If we’re lucky…’</p><p>“If you’re lucky I might still be asleep?” Kasumi asked drawing both to look around behind them to see the oni standing there with one hand clasped at her side.</p><p>Kasumi frowned slightly and crossed her arms, though Nabiki was relieved to see the nails were their default length and nothing about space was warping around her, though she did keep her left hand clasped into a fist. Xian Pu’s eyes drifted up toward the horns the older woman sported and wondered just how an actual oni got this close to her without having any hint of presence until she revealed herself. Or warning from Kayako, who she couldn’t feel either now that she thought about it.</p><p> “The sun is up, and there is no text on my phone. I recognize you’re an adult, but some consideration please.” Kasumi turned toward Xian Pu. “Hello, I’m Nabiki’s sister, it is a pleasure to meet Nabiki’s…”</p><p>“My friend, Xian Pu” Nabiki said.</p><p>“Ahh.” Kasumi straightened and put on a pleasant expression. “I see then.” She turned toward Xian Pu and saw the purple haired woman with her arms crossed and looking at Nabiki expectantly. “Anything else?”</p><p>“Whom I sometimes have sex with.”</p><p>“Oh, well, okay. Not what I expected, but I can...consider that.” Kasumi said noting the lack of terms like girlfriend or dating.</p><p>“The other thing.” Xian Pu said.</p><p>“Who patched me up last night after I had an accident.”</p><p>And Xian Pu started speaking quickly, forgetting her shock over Kasumi's nature “She came to my door smelling like lasagna. I had to scrub her down, wash her hair, wash her clothes….”</p><p>Kasumi leaned forward and pulled back the collar of the Chinese woman’s shirt and noted the bite marks. “Feed her.”</p><p>“It is possible to draw blood without actually feeding,” Nabiki muttered. “We’ve done it.”</p><p>Kasumi and Xian Pu turned briefly to look at Nabiki.</p><p>“Yes, feed her.” Xian Pu said, stepping back from the oni. “Once I can see as an accident, but this happens over and over since she became a vampire.”</p><p> “It’s nothing to worry about.” Nabiki said. “We have other problems and this is manageable.”</p><p>“Thank you, Xian Pu, this is something I would discuss further.” Kasumi gestured toward to table. “In the meantime, perhaps you’d like some breakfast. Perhaps something in the line of red meat. Replace some of that iron you lost. And we can get acquainted with each other.”</p><p>The oni unclasped her left hand and immediately Xian Pu felt Kayako’s presence return to her, though the yurei seemed a bit more cautious than normal.</p><p>”Uhh, sure that sounds nice.”</p><p>“All right, then.” Kasumi turned around and started walking out of the room towards what the Chinese woman assumed was the kitchen.</p><p>Xian Pu turned toward Nabiki slowly. “You didn’t tell me your sister was an actual oni.”</p><p>“I thought I did.”</p><p>“You said she had been possessed and still had horns, not…” Xian Pu gestured toward the kitchen. “That.”</p><p>“Are you telling me there is something wrong with my sister?” Nabiki asked. Her eyes narrowed and Xian Pu see the fangs starting to peek out over her lips.</p><p>The Chinese woman thought for a moment, going over the various things she had been taught in the village about various evil spirits. Evil spirits like vampires. A chibi Nabiki walked through her thoughts and bundled that collection of words into a garbage bin and drop kicked it. And yurei. A chibi Kayako pulled the words “evil yurei” into the darkness quietly. There were a few more entities that she had encountered during her time out of the village that similarly came through her mind in chibi form and similarly trashed some bit of label that she’d been taught growing up. Ending with a chibi Kasumi doing the same.</p><p>“You know what, no, there’s nothing wrong with her. She’s nice.” Xian Pu said. “Let’s have breakfast. Today is going to be a good day.”</p><p>She turned around and almost ran smack into a person drying their hair as they walked out of the hallway. They each noticed the impact about to happen and stepped away, the towel falling from around the other person’s head to reveal a red-head Japanese woman who was quite a bit shorter than everybody else. There. The red-head took in Xian Pu and froze just before their eyes met. Xian Pu could see the red-head starting to shift into a stance and could feel herself doing likewise. Instead she forced her shoulders to relax and raise her hand up with a smile.</p><p>“Hello, I’m Nabiki’s friend. Peace?”</p><p>“Yeah. Sure, Xian Pu.”</p><p>Nabiki blinked and looked between the two. “Wait, how do you two know each other?”</p><p>Xian Pu spoke in a too cheerful tone. “She’s the reason I’m in exile.”</p><p>Ranma spoke a bit more cautiously. “She tried to kill me for almost a year.”</p><p>“Ahhh, swell!” Nabiki declared marching to the table. “Normal martial artist crap! Got it!”</p><p>“Breakfast?” Xian Pu asked, turning on her heels to go sit beside Nabiki.</p><p>A confused Kodachi stepped up beside Ranma pointing towards the purple haired Chinese girl. “She works at my pharmacy.”</p>
<hr/><p>In the depths of Xian Pu’s head, one chibi stood over a handful of red words which it would let nobody else come near. Labels like “traitor” and “degenerate” and “deserter” and, of course, “exile.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I wasn't sure which direction I was going to go with Xian Pu whether jerk or nice person or what she'd been doing the last four years. And, if I wanted her to be nice did I want her to be part of the core poly or not. (I actually still haven't decided for sure on that with Nabiki either).</p><p>Though at this point, with her being a bit a lot Poly Aro in the way this developed she'd probably be more comfortable in the "friend with benefit" category than "girlfriend" and she certainly has other lovers out there, Nabiki certainly knows this. In a way this is similar to a plan I have for someone else save that person has no idea she swings that way yet and does have full romantic feelings for some of her partners.</p><p>There were other words I could have added in the list of self-hating labels Xian Pu hasn't abandoned yet and I've used those words far too casually in past fics, not often, but even the few times I did were times I now regret. They're words which attach a level of moral judgment and personal worth to sexual behavior that I don't agree should be there. I'm sure part of Xian Pu uses those words to describe herself because I've found that once you start insulting yourself, you rarely hesitate to add new insults. In any case, I hope not to repeat the mistake of using such words lightly  in the future.</p><p>Another thing that drove my direction for Xian Pu was when I was wondering what she would be doing in Japan and the image of myself renewing my work visa came into mind. I had a number of different things on my visa based on the allowances for the different types of work my school wanted me to do. One for teaching kids, one for teaching adults because of one single event, and one for when we were part of a summer education program. Xian Pu likely has to get two, one for working and one for school. I imagine since she's studying medicine she'd have an easier time getting a permanent residence than some other people.</p><p>At one point, I was going to end this chapter on Xian Pu and Ranma seeing each other and cliffhanger it "are they going to fight" but ultimately felt that was a false cliffhanger given the way I'm running this fic.</p><p>My original plan for Kasumi was that she was similar to Nabiki as mostly a non-combatant, but a friend's comment derailed that direction, which to be fair I would have been bored with, into this thing I'm having so much fun with.</p><p>When Nabiki says that she can draw blood without feeding, she's right. The feeding she does is on a spiritual level. She can survive on donated blood and animal blood because the lingering bits of soul is enough spirit for her to survive on. This is especially true of something like a blood pack for blood donations because there's an element of willing sacrifice to that. But getting those is expensive, so she settles for animal blood (cow, rabbit, and pig, mostly). She can bite sensually without endangering a partner. It should be also noted that her face is far more terrifying when she's actually feeding than when she's just biting for pleasure.</p><p>In the time she's been a vampire, Nabiki has probably bitten a few people who she was dating at one time or another (I'm not sure how casual she is about sexual relations). But Xian Pu is the only person she's fed on.</p><p>The Amazons will still appear because they're the source of a lot of the special techniques Ranma and Ryouga pick up. But their role is likely to change a little. I've decided to lean into the Amazon society being heavily constricting and narrow minded. I'm not sure how much Cologne or Mousse will fall to that thought pattern yet. Though Mousse IS just slightly above Kunou in terms of how creepy he is in canon.</p><p>Final comment....someone HAS to tell Xian Pu about Shouganai. Oh my goodness it would be like a playground for her.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0011"><h2>11. She Is</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>A closer look at another Tendou.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Akane blinked as she came into the dining room and sat next to Kodachi, she pointed toward the purple-haired woman across the table and looked toward the other people sitting there.</p><p>“Who is this?” she asked. “Who are you?”</p><p>“She’s the clerk at my pharmacy,” Kodachi answered “and apparently she knows Ranma-darling and your sister.”</p><p>“Akane, Xian Pu,” Nabiki said. “Xian Pu, this is my sister Akane.”</p><p>Xian Pu was staring wide-eyed as Akane sat down and then looking between Kodachi, Ranma, and Nabiki before muttering in Cantonese. “An actual proper woman.”</p><p>Nabiki blinked and turned toward Xian Pu, staring for a long time before responding, also in Cantonese. “I’m sorry, what did you say? I must have misheard that.”</p><p>“She’s not skinny like the rest of you. There is actual muscle definition and proper shoulders and…just look.” Xian Pu gestured broadly at Akane. “She’s gorgeous.”</p><p>The vampire rolled her eyes and then turned to everyone else. “She’s a bit impressed with Akane. Apparently, the rest of us are ‘skinny’.”</p><p>“Well you are,” the Chinese woman switched to Japanese. “You need to eat more, put some protein on. It’s not healthy.”</p><p>“Xian Pu, consider what I am. Would more protein do me any good? Forget nutrition, I’m lucky I can enjoy the taste and eat it without getting sick.”</p><p>“Ah, yes, you’re already stuck as you are.” Xian Pu said. “But this one certainly could do with more food.”</p><p>Kodachi cleared her throat and leaned forward. “Did you know I was a gymnast and I try to maintain my skills which requires a very strict diet.”</p><p>“Ahhh…okay, that’s understandable…” Xian Pu said. “But about the thief here? She could eat more.”</p><p>“How many times have we fought?” Ranma asked. “You know my style! I have muscle definition, Xian Pu.”</p><p>Xian Pu nodded and looked around the table. “You’re all very pretty, and I’m sorry I said anything.”</p><p>Nabiki put her face into her palm to hide a smirk as she quipped in Cantonese. “What was that about seducing my sister and her lovers?”</p><p>“It is not the best start.” Xian Pu responded in the same language with a self-deprecating smile.</p><p>Kasumi walked into the room then and started setting out the food. Most of the items she set out were pretty standard though Xian Pu found herself with a rather large spoon and a small steak cooked rare while Nabiki had a bowl of warmed blood. The Chinese woman looked down at the spoon and held it up.</p><p>“Why is this so big?”</p><p>Kasumi turned to look at Xian Pu and smiled as she spoke in measured Cantonese. “I have no shovels in the kitchen for you to dig yourself out with.”</p><p>Nabiki and Xian Pu stared at her wide-eyed.</p><p>The oni reached down to pat them both on the shoulder and then straightened to call out down the hallway. “Father, Breakfast is ready.”</p><p>Kasumi sat down beside Nabiki and it was a few moments before Soun was walking in with his newspaper and sitting down at the head of the table. Everyone straightened and called out “Itadakimas” before started to dig into the food.</p><p>“Now, about this issue you were talking about, Xian Pu.” Kasumi said.</p><p>“We can talk about that later.” Nabiki said.</p><p>“Talk about what later?” Akane asked.</p><p>“Apparently, Nabiki has been showing up at Xian Pu’s house covered in garlic recently. Including last night.”</p><p>“What?!” Akane gasped as Soun folded down his newspaper to eye her. “Nabiki, how many times has this happened?”</p><p>“Four times alone this summer.” Xian Pu said.</p><p>“That’s a little more than once a month, Nabiki.” Soun said. “Why haven’t you said anything.”</p><p>“It’s fine…” she started to say. “Okay, it’s not fine, but I can deal with it.”</p><p>“By leaning on her.” Akane said gesturing to Xian Pu.</p><p>“No, I wasn’t…well…fine, yeah, maybe I was.”</p><p>“Now, perhaps you can make clear what is going on.” Kasumi said.</p><p>Nabiki took a long breath and turned to Xian Pu. “What’s the floor above Uncommon Blossoms?”</p><p>“An anime memorabilia shop, a travel agent, and a Korean restaurant, how does…” she paused and thought a moment. “Are they tossing garlic at you?”</p><p>“No, that’s not it.” Nabiki said. “If someone were attacking me, I’d ask for help. But that’s not happening.”</p><p>“So, what does that have to do with anything?” </p><p>“The building is falling apart,” Nabiki said flatly. “The landlord cheaped out on a lot of construction. One of the things is that the plumbing from upstairs is leaking onto the built-in fans in our place. We’ve tried to deal with it by just not using the fans, but sometimes a client finds the switch and…well there you go. Garlic everywhere.”</p><p>Xian Pu sat up. “How does Valentine let this go on? There’s you. Mika’s allergic to garlic.”</p><p>“We haven’t really told Miss Valentine how bad our reactions are.”</p><p>“What sense does that make?” Kodachi asked. “You’re a vampire. Certainly, she must be aware that garlic reacts to you aggressively.”</p><p>“Well…”</p><p>Kasumi cleared her throat. “It affects Nabiki slower than most vampires. She’d have time to say that she was exposed and feeling ill then leave before it got too bad. And this Mika?”</p><p>“Will honestly say migraine and one of the bouncers will volunteer to ‘see she gets home’ and take her to the ER just in case.”</p><p>“No one comes with you to my door.” Xian Pu noted.</p><p>“Well I haven’t really told the others how bad garlic is for me either. Everybody thinks I’m just sort of vampire-ish and ‘oh, half the weaknesses, that’s okay then.’”</p><p>“And why haven’t you been telling your boss about this?” Soun asked.</p><p>“Miss Valentine can’t do anything about. She’s tried. She’s bleeding money keeping up with safety inspections and appeasing annoyed guests trying to get to the end of her lease so we can move locations. I think she’s even bounty hunting again, she’s taken a couple of ‘business trips’ to Indonesia recently. Mika and I are fairly big draws so we talked and agreed we’d not mention things to her for now.”</p><p>“We’re going to talk to her now.” Soun said.</p><p>“You and the other woman are fine in the area of the restaurant itself?” Kodachi asked.</p><p>“Well, we stay inside most of the shift and they’re at the back of the second floor.”</p><p>“Do you know how much of a concentration it takes to provoke a reaction?” the gymnast asked.</p><p>“Not really paid that much attention.”</p><p>“I’m afraid not, we simply cut garlic out of the menu at home.” Kasumi explained.</p><p>“I can guess.” Ranma said at about the same time Xian Pu said. “I know.”</p><p>The two shared a look and narrowed eyes. </p><p>“Kowloon? Hsien-ko said someone was handling the west side.”</p><p>“You were right there. All week.” Xian Pu shook her head out. and smacked herself in the face. “Well, yes, that.” then dramatically gestured toward Nabiki. “But also fourteen months of patching up this idiot.”</p><p>Nabiki shrugged helplessly and shook her head slightly.</p><p>“You said a wall fan? Standard strength?”</p><p>“Yeah, they wanted something out of sight.” Nabiki said.</p><p>“And you clean the fans or at least vents regularly?”</p><p>“Not me or Mika, but somebody yeah.”</p><p>“How big are the rooms?”</p><p>“About half the size of your bedroom.” Nabiki said.</p><p>“Kasumi-dear, might I briefly excuse myself to speak with our guest and my…ahem…” she flicked her eyes toward Soun. “Ranma?”</p><p>“Certainly. Please do.”</p><p>Kodachi dabbed at her mouth and stood up and gestured from the other two to follow her. Ranma and Xian Pu shared a look and excused themselves as well, wondering what the gymnast had in mind. Akane almost kissed her partners as they passed her but settled for quietly squeezing their hands before turning back to the table.</p><p>“Well, Kodachi has doubts.” She said.</p><p>“Building maintenance should be the responsibility of the landlord.” Soun noted. “There’s a contractor on the ward council. I’ll make a call and ask him.”</p><p>“I should probably make some calls as well.” Kasumi noted. “In the meantime, how long was it going to be before you told us about Xian Pu.”</p><p>“She’s known you since before you were a vampire and you haven’t told us about her?”</p><p>“Or her yurei friend.” Kasumi noted. Soun and Akane tensed and looked from Kasumi to Nabiki.</p><p>“Wait, she told you about Kayako?” Nabiki asked.</p><p>“No, but I noticed her riding your friend’s shadow. She seems well-behaved.” Kasumi turned toward a patch of shadow in the room and smiled before looking back at her sisters. “Now about Xian Pu. She’s clearly worried about you and you obviously trust her. The rest I don’t need to know about and I’m going to ignore you jumping to it as a delaying tactic earlier. But you are being careful?”</p><p>“I think we’ve had the conversation with Nabiki about being a potential carrier and being safe.” Soun noted.</p><p>“She’s fed on Xian Pu.” Kasumi emphasized the word.</p><p>“Ahhh. You are being…careful then?”</p><p>“We’ve even got Kayako making sure I don’t go too far.” Nabiki said.</p><p>In the difference, a shrill laughter could be heard coming from the other rooms.</p><p>“Oh,” Kasumi said turning back to the shadow in the corner of the ceiling. “Well, thank you for watching out for my sister and her friend then.”</p><p>Soun looked up to the clock and stood up. “If you excuse me a moment, I should make those calls.”</p><p>Xian Pu and Ranma came back in, standing well apart from each other and watching each other before sitting down.</p><p>“Is Kodachi coming back?” Kasumi asked.</p><p>“She started laughing and sat down at her desk with some paper.” Xian Pu said. “She…she takes her medicine right?”</p><p>“Very carefully.” Ranma said. “She doesn’t play around with that.”</p><p>“Xian Pu, I can find you that shovel if you still need it.” Kasumi said.</p><p>A few minutes later, Kodachi excitedly came out of the hallway water bottle roughly the size of a sample shampoo bottle and set it down on the table. “That, is what they need.”</p><p>She energetically sat down at the table, somehow finding both Akane and Ranma’s laps, and virtually bouncing with energy.</p><p>“I’m sorry what they need for what?” Nabiki asked.</p><p>“That’s the volume of concentrated essence of garlic necessary to be spread through a room that size and still have enough that you would reach the concentrations Ranma and your friend suggested. It would of course need to be rendered in an aerosol vector so that the fan could blow it through the room rather than just spray it in a mess.”</p><p>Nabiki leaned forward and looked at the bottle and then at Kodachi. “And how big would that be?”</p><p>“I could get it down into maybe a tennis ball sized delivery method given enough time to design it. Though it would probably be more effective to create a golf-ball sized projectile and a smaller area but control where people stand when it happens. Maybe add some other element so that the explosion is visible and draws the eye. Then…”</p><p>Xian Pu leaned back straight as she watched Kodachi speaking. Nabiki shared a look with Kasumi who held a hand in a gesture to advise for patience.</p><p>Akane reached up and set a hand on Kodachi’s shoulder as Ranma grabbed one of her hands and rubbed it. The gymnast flinched momentarily and then closed her eyes taking several deep breaths before opening the eyes again without flaring them wide and then clearing her throat and speaking in a much more measured tone.</p><p>“In any case, a simple leak from the floor above should not be enough. Certainly not with regularly cleaning. But it is possible to create a device that would be difficult but possible to palm and create the effect you describe. Then the person who palmed it would of course also be the one to complain about the smell.”</p><p>“Okay, I can see why someone would target me,” Nabiki said. “But I’d notice if it happened with the same guy every time. And it doesn’t always happen to me. Or Mika.”</p><p>Soun walked back into the room and sat down. “Hamada said that he was with the company that built that building and as far as he knew everything was built to specs and code. There shouldn’t be problems.”</p><p>“But the entire building is having troubles,” the vampire protested. “The second-hand shop in the space next to us just decided to eat the penalty for breach of lease and…” Nabiki paused and smacked herself in the head. “I am a fucking idiot.”</p><p>Kasumi stood up and started to walk to her room. “I shall be out for a bit.”</p>
<hr/><p>“To what do I owe the pleasure of this visit, Kasumi?” the man behind the desk asked. “I’m sorry about cancelling the party but nature doesn’t wait.”</p><p>“How are Shiori and the baby?” Kasumi asked pleasantly. She was dressed in a simple white blouse with a red leather jacket and long black slacks.</p><p>“They’re very well, thank you.” He said looking over her. “I’m guessing you’re here for business?”</p><p>“Well, yes, but not what you would assume.”</p><p>“So, what is our business then?”</p><p>“You’ve met my sister, Nabiki?” Kasumi asked.</p><p>“The va…photographer?” he asked.</p><p>“Good save.” She said. “But yes, her. She works at a hostess club called Uncommon Blossoms.”</p><p>“I’ve heard of it. The owner is an ex-adventurer or something?”</p><p>“Bounty hunter. Yes. Faye Valentine. It seems they’ve been experiencing some maintenance issues of odd nature. I only have report of one particular issue, but from what I understand there are others.”</p><p>The man leaned back in his desk and cupped his chin. “I can look into inspection histories and start an investigation.”</p><p>“That’s all I can ask.” Kasumi said.</p><p>“I’m still amazed you ask given what you are.”</p><p>“You of all people know the dangers and temptations of mistaking power for authority. It ruined our prior relationship and almost ruined your life. If I were to act in this circumstance, I’d be overstepping myself and tempted to take things too far.”</p><p>“Fair enough. If I might risk a question, before you leave. Where is…he…now?” </p><p>There wasn’t any pleasure in Kasumi’s answering smile, but a fair amount of gentle re-assurance. “Somewhere where there are no apples to enjoy.”</p><p>He nodded silently and then she took in a short breath and collected her purse.</p><p>“I’ll see you and Shiori for the shower then?”</p><p>“It’ll be a pleasure.”</p><p>Kasumi walked out the office and the door shut behind her showing the name plate "Yagami".</p>
<hr/><p>Kasumi walked under a torii gate and up several stairs. She watched several of the blessed mirrors darkening as she approached and the shadows between the trees about the shrine grew deeper. Once she would have been disturbed by that and there was still a lingering bit of nostalgia for the time when blessings and magic did not react to her mere presence, but what was had to be accepted. The trees knew her anyway and did not shirk away. Nor did the sparrows that darted around her head a moment before slipping up into the branches again. </p><p>A goddess with short brown hair and very revealing costume nodded to her as she passed the oni going the other way and Kasumi waved at her politely. There seemed to be a lot of goddesses in the area recently, maybe she should make an effort to introduce herself officially.</p><p>As she turned a corner, she found herself facing a teenager dressed in a miko’s robes and holding a bow with a knocked arrow and spiritual energy ready to fly.</p><p>“Stay ba…Oh.” The girl lowered her bow and looked about in embarrassment. “Hello, Miss Tendou.”</p><p>“Good day, Mina. Is your grandfather in?” Kasumi asked.</p><p>“Yes, please have a seat while you wait.” She said, setting her bow aside and dusting off a chair for Kasumi to sit in before running further into the shrine.</p><p>The oni sat down and retrieved a small bottle of peach fanta from her purse to take a drink. She didn’t have long to wait before Mina came back down along with and older bearded man. The orange haired young woman swept off another seat for her grandfather and then stepped away.</p><p>“Thank you, Mina. Go ahead and prepare some rice and water for our guest to take home.”</p><p>“Right, I’ll do that now. Uhm, sorry for earlier, Kasumi.” Mina waved as the teenager moved further up into the shrine.</p><p>The older man looked toward the bow and laughed. “The novices make silly mistakes sometimes. What brings you here. You can’t need more supplies so soon. Unless the blessing has faded.”</p><p>“No, everything is fine, though more is always welcome. I have to ask an allowance.”</p><p>The older man’s eyebrows arched briefly. “Oh, that is unusual. What is it that you are asking?”</p><p>“I need to speak to an asset on a personal matter.” She explained. “Faye Valentine.”</p><p>He straightened his back and considered her statement. “What business do you have with her?”</p><p>“My sister works at her club and there have been issues recently.” Kasumi explained. “Absolutely nothing related to us, but I want to be above board.”</p><p>He nodded. “The transparency is welcome. I see no issues with this, you may speak with her as long as you do not claim to speak for us.”</p><p>“Of course not, Master Hakuba, But I will be honest with her.” </p><p>“I gathered as much from the not-uniform. If you’re willing to accept the risk.”</p><p>“I am.” Kasumi took another sip of her soda. “Oh, one question.”</p><p>“Hmm?”</p><p>“On the Sendai operation. Why? In the name of the Holy Light and the Sacred Dark. Why Dante?”</p><p>He laughed and slapped his knee. “He is skilled. He is powerful. And because our rivals thought it would be funny to hire him in their stead to deal with us.”</p><p>“He burned my sister’s hair.”</p><p>“And he’s still alive?”</p><p>“He healed.” The old man laughed.</p><p>“On the matter of your sisters? How are things going?”</p><p>“They’re fine. They’re dating nice people.”</p><p>“And the blessing?”</p><p>“I’m still not sure it’s helping Nabiki if it is, it’s minimal, or long term.” She shrugged. “Vampires are different from oni. She may not be able to digest it the way I do. She’s been suggesting I save it for myself.”</p><p>“It was an experiment to try at least.”</p><p>“One step closer to humans and denizens on even footing.” Kasumi nodded. She smiled and waved toward Mina as the girl came into sight, carefully pulling a small cart full of plastic water jugs and bags of rice.</p><p>“Here you go, Kasumi.” The girl said, wiping her forehead. “Do you need help getting it down the stairs?”</p><p>The oni smiled at her and reached out, arm stretching outward impossibly long as the air around her started to ripple in red and dark green before scooping up the rice and water into a dark sphere that she slipped into her purse. And then her arm was just suddenly normal again, as if none of that had ever happened.</p><p>Mina stared and then looked toward her grandfather nervously. “Uhh…”</p><p>“Oh, Kasumi, I hope this is not an imposition, but Mina was wondering how you became an oni.”</p><p>Kasumi blinked and thought for a moment.</p>
<hr/><p>Her sisters and father were arguing over how to fix her possession and the priest from the oni shrine was still fumbling through the scroll with the incantation. He quite clearly didn’t know what he was doing. It was amusing, them getting all worked up over nothing.</p><p>Which was when she gasped and felt the first explosion of pain from her core. Kasumi’s eyes widened and she stumbled feeling suddenly weak. Her family suddenly ran to her side but it was already becoming to difficult to hear them.</p><p>“What are you doing?” she thought at the thing in her head.</p><p>“I'm taking what I want.” The voice was no longer so innocent and cute but guttural and dripping with murderous hate.</p><p>“You’re killing me.” She could already feel her insides disintegrating. </p><p>“Yes.”</p><p>“You don’t need to do that. We’ve been sharing fine.” </p><p>“I didn’t say I was taking what I need. I’m taking what I want, a body.” The voice chuckled as the realization of betrayal and shock flushed through Kasumi’s mind. “Go ahead, be angry. I can feed on that hate.”</p><p>Outwardly, she shook her head weakly. There was no sign of the disintegration visible to her family yet, but it wouldn’t be long before her body was dust or mist or light and then gone, drowning into the oni. And her soul? Would that continue? Would it be trapped by the oni too? Would she be some grudge filled yurei? Would she just stop existing?</p><p>The young woman focused on the place that voice was still sitting in the back of her mind and she grabbed. The same way she had grabbed to grow her nails or twist the shadows. The same way the voice had taught her to grab at the concept of a thing and twist it.</p><p>“Gahh! What are you doing?”</p><p>“You should not break other people’s things.”</p><p>“Ha! Seriously! You’re going to lecture me like a child?”</p><p>“We are far past lectures. Give me back my body.”</p><p>“It’s mine now. Ha! Ha! Ha! What do you think to do about it?”</p><p>Only moments left. Less than a second and she held on to the voice and split her focus to grab the concept that was now in contest: physicality, manifestation…a body. An existence that currently was just the hollow image of a young woman with a skin thinner than a balloon around swirling potentiality.</p><p>“You should be dead! This should be my body!”</p><p>The oni slipped. There was doubt in the assertion and Kasumi ripped it free of her mind, soul, and everything. The entity remained grasped in her will less than an echo of the shadow it had been when it had joined her.</p><p>“I’m not angry.” She thought sadly. “Just disappointed.”</p><p>And then released her hold, not even listening to the cries of disbelief and despair. The concept was contested no longer, but hers alone. The space within her image filled with darkness and chaos which formed into organs, blood, and bone.</p><p>Outwardly, Kasumi gripped hard to Akane’s shoulder and blinked as she could feel the presence of the lightning spirit with her sister’s flesh. It thrashed against the acupuncture seals, Dr. Ono had taught her to create. She wanted to tell it to calm down, but it wouldn’t hear her and she was tired. She pushed herself up to standing and turned to her family.</p><p>“Oh my. I think I have been acting a bit strangely.”</p><p>“The incantation worked!” The priest called out.</p><p>“But you never finished it!”</p><p>“She still has horns!”</p>
<hr/><p>“Humans are dangerous, Mina.” Kasumi said. “Kindness and respect should be a given in any case. But if you treat dangerous things without kindness…they will show you how they are dangerous.”</p><p>The young shrine maiden blinked and looked to her grandfather, confused. “And uh, if you treat them with kindness?”</p><p>“Then you prosper together as friends. Anyway, I shall be off. Thank you for the food, Master. I shall be back later.”</p>
<hr/><p>The sound of knocking on the door came to the woman’s ears and she grimaced, looking away from her computer. </p><p>“Just a minute!”</p><p>The numbers were starting to work, maybe if she could get another job or two before the end of the quarter she would even have a little bit of a buffer. She grimaced and considered the likelihood of that with her arm still in a sling and a bullet-hole still healing. There was another knock at the door.</p><p>“All right, I’m coming!”</p><p>She opened the door to see a tall, brown-haired woman. Her eye was quickly drawn to the white, red, and black color scheme with a mix of hope and annoyance. There weren’t any crosses anywhere, but that didn’t always mean anything. The horns were odd, but not the weirdest thing she’d seen before.</p><p>“I hope you have a way to put my arm back in working order, because otherwise I’m not going to be able to do whatever you want me to do.”</p><p>“I am not here about a job, Miss Valentine. My name is Tendou Kasumi, my sister works for you.”</p><p>“Oh,” Faye said. “Sorry. I thought…well…nevermind. It’s silly.”</p><p>Kasumi laughed. “You thought I was a Templar, didn’t you?”</p><p>“Yeah, I di…oh crap.” </p><p>“Oh, don’t worry. This is entirely a personal matter.”</p><p>“Because that makes me feel better!”</p>
<hr/><p>Murata Ryobe had not expected to see a safety inspector walking through his building with a clipboard. He hadn’t heard anything about an inspection. Nor had he reached out to his normal contact for “surprise inspections.” He started to follow the man and saw him turn a corner into a meeting room filled with his tenants. His eyes widened and he quietly backed up and turned around the other way…when he saw a man in a rumpled army coat coming up the hallway with a badge on his belt. Pretending not to see the police officer, he turned down another hallway, aiming for another exit and saw a woman in a sharp black suit step out in front of him.</p><p>“Ahh, I think this is Murata-san here. Don’t you think, Onda?”</p><p>“Looks like it, Aoshima.”</p><p>He looked between the two and smiled. “How can I help you officers?”</p><p>“Well, you’re about to miss the meeting.”</p><p>“I’m a little busy with things to do.”</p><p>“Onda?”</p><p>The woman reached behind her back and idly pulled out a pair of handcuffs. “I’m afraid we insist.”</p><p>The man in the rumpled coat turned to her and then leaned in close to Murata. “I’m afraid we insist.”</p>
<hr/><p>Kasumi was putting away the new jugs of blessed rice and water as she felt Nabiki’s presence step around the corner behind her. She still marveled at how awareness worked for her now. She didn’t see so much as she experienced the concept of light and form. She didn’t hear words so much as she felt context and intent. Which made foreign languages simultaneously easier and more difficult in many ways. The rice and water were heavy with wellness, health, and wishes for prosperity. The kitchen was love for family and enjoyment of shared meals. Ideas and concepts everywhere.</p><p>A thing of thought was trickier. There were so many layers and most people held so tightly to their concepts that there was no easy way to just read a person. She picked up probably a lot more than people thought for the simple fact that they didn’t know what signs to hide or even which signs existed, but she knew for a fact that it was a bad idea to just assume she knew everything about a person. After all, the previous oni had made that mistake.</p><p>Nabiki was a bundle of blood, life, and death. She would have said her sister was frozen in transition. but she was no longer certain of that. Currently there was a bit of…it wasn’t shame…but something close. Plus a nature of inquiry and hesitation. </p><p>“Uh Kasumi?” </p><p>The words were thick with trepidation and hope.</p><p>Kasumi shaped her intention of showing response and encouragement and released it to take form into a sound. “Hmmm?” </p><p>“Sorry about not telling anyone about…the problem.” Honest regret. Some lingering denial.</p><p>Non-judgmental compassion flavored with a cautionary statement further defined by relevant implications. “We all make mistakes. But do consider what might have happened to someone if this had gone on longer.”</p><p>“Valentine said you spoke to her…” Concern and uncertainty, deep questions she wasn’t sure about asking. "She kind of chewed us out for hiding things from her." Cushioning. Delaying the subject at hand.</p><p>Deflection and adoption of expectations. Some trace of truth but lacking context. Withheld statement asking for patience and privacy. Reassurance. Request for trust on subconscious level. I’m the same sister you’ve always known. “Oh yes. She had some exciting stories to tell about pirates in Indonesia. I quite enjoyed our discussion. Would you like some tea? Or perhaps I could warm up the rabbit’s blood.”</p><p>“Yeah, thank you. That’ll be nice.” </p><p>Kasumi is Kasumi.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>One of the things that happens when you put all the characters on roughly even footing with Ranma and have them cooperating rather than making each other's lives hell is that it becomes more of an ensemble than a case of a main character. I do want to get back to Ranma's issues and I thought introducing Xian Pu would put him more center stage but then I went with showing Xian Pu's life before introducing her to the group and then I had a very clear idea of how Kasumi's transformation occurred and I wanted to show it, meaning I've now put her behind the scenes story very much in full view and confirmed something I was originally just going to have as an ongoing unsaid joke.</p><p>The last bit of conversation and how Kasumi experiences everything as a raw concept came to me pretty much as I got that to that point and was writing the bit of Nabiki coming in to talk to her. It was certainly a direct result of deciding that she had saved herself by virtue of having somehow learned to interact directly with conceptual reality.</p><p>As a note. Kasumi is darkness and chaos. That is part and parcel of being an oni. But she is also compassion and empathy. And that is part and parcel of being Kasumi. Manga Kasumi was always a lot more sarcastic and observant than her anime equivalent and oni-Kasumi kind of heightened that to a razor edge. So this Kasumi is definitely Sacred Dark. Kasumi is dark. Kasumi is good. Kasumi is nice (most of the time.)</p><p>As to the bit of having Kodachi pull Ranma and Xian Pu out of the room...that's me avoiding having to do a discussion of what parts per million garlic were needed on screen.</p><p>I think it might be time for another tournament sequence for Ranma and Akane. There is the temptation to have Kodachi join the streetfighting, but I want to parcel around the chapter focuses a bit and Kodachi starting streetfighting would come back to her.</p><p>Also, later, there is a raunchy party I want to get to eventually.</p><p>Regarding Soun. He's not nearly as toxic as Genma, but he's pretty worthless. Most of the time when something terrible happens his response is to hide from it. He does get protective of his girls, but he doesn't often actually act on that sense of protectiveness. When he does it's often ineffective. Trying to help and failing I have no problem with, but it's when he hides behind his newspaper or cries and gets Ranma to address the problem that I lose respect for him. Also, he follows Genma's lead far too much. I have no doubt that Genma's influence is the source of a lot of issues.</p><p>Edit: It occurs to me that there were actually at least three, possibly more, concepts in contest there:</p><p>Mutual survival (Kasumi would very much have liked to be able to continue being friends)<br/>Nature (whether the survivor was human or oni)<br/>Physicality (which person actually survived)</p><p>Kasumi pretty much put every conscious effort into wanting to live. The oni split its attention between mostly the first two concepts (or others I'm overlooking) and lost to the novice because: Kasumi was focusing on a concept the unnamed oni had taken for granted while it was focused on other things, it didn't realize how much Kasumi had learned from it, it underestimated how much raw power Kasumi had, and Kasumi didn't really know how to split her focus so she poured all of herself into one effort.</p><p>So, the unnamed Oni one two out of three of the conceptual contests: There was only one survivor and that survivor was an oni. But it lost on a concept it wasn't really paying attention to until it was too late: just who would be the one survivor. It basically won the battles but lost the war.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Triggers</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Games, brats, and a new restaurant.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Xian Pu opened the door to see Nabiki there with her younger sister, the gymnast, and… “Who’s that?”</p><p>The Joketsuzoku woman pointed toward the man standing a bit behind Akane. He was dressed in a manner similar to Ranma’s preferred styles and had the same style of hair. Though the young man was almost two heads taller than the red-head. Kayako wasn’t reacting, so she must have known him from somewhere and his aura was familiar, but she couldn’t think where.</p><p>“Oh, with the whole thing about Nabiki we forgot about that,” Akane said. “That’s Ranma.”</p><p>Xian Pu stared for a long moment processing that statement. “What?”</p><p>“Weren’t you hunting our darling for quite a long period of time. Did you never see both forms?”</p><p>“Both…what?”</p><p>“Don’t you live like half a day’s travel from Jusenkyo?”</p><p>“Ju..” Xian Pu blinked, shut her mouth as people walked inside. Kayako closed the door as Xian Pu composed herself and then asked. “Would you like some hot water?”</p><p>“Nah, this is the hot-water form.” Ranma said.</p><p>Xian Pu blinked and her mouth twitched after a moment. “This is your true form. Right now? The way you are.”</p><p>“Hot-water form, yeah.” The martial artist said.</p><p>“Hot-water…okay.” The pharmacology student cricked her head to the side grabbed the door jam and then beat her head against the wall for about fifteen seconds.</p><p>“Are you okay?” Nabiki asked reaching out cautiously to pat the other woman’s shoulder.</p><p>Xian Pu straightened up, smoothed out her hair and turned around. “I’m fine. I’m fine. Just…” She took a deep breath. “Can I kiss Ranma?”</p><p>“I thought we called a stop on the whole kiss of death thing.” Ranma said.</p><p>“We came here to play board games,” Akane said, getting defensive. “If this is a trap...”</p><p>There was a growing feeling of aggression in the house as well as Kayako and her son started to respond to the situation.</p><p>“Look, no, everybody calm down,” Xian Pu said. “There’s two kisses. Kiss of death for when a woman outside the tribe beats you and….kiss of…” she mumbled something “…for when a man beats you.”</p><p>“Did you just say marriage?” Kodachi asked.</p><p>“Oh god, as if we don’t have enough problems with that with the old men,” Ranma said.</p><p>“Do you think I want to be married?” Xian Pu asked, holding up her phone and showing a list of contact numbers and names with different emotes attached. Then she slipped it back in her pocket.</p><p>“Then what’s your reason here?” Akane asked, crossing her arms.</p><p>“When the elders next send someone to check on me, I can say ‘oh turns out he was a guy with a curse’ and maybe they’ll leave me alone…” she waved her hand uncertainly for a moment “…for longer periods at a time.”</p><p>“I have to ask,” Kodachi said. “Are you making advances on our darling here in front of us?”</p><p>“I don’t hit on only part of a relationship. If I was making an advance on you, it would be on all of you at once and it would be me mentioning I have vibrators, strap-ons, and condoms in one of the storage closets.” Xian Pu said. The other three stared at her for a minute. “Yes, that one was hitting on you.”</p><p>Nabiki shook her head and turned to her sister. “So, when we met it was anatomy study class for photography and she came up to me after class and said ‘Want to study together? I’ll bring my anatomy, you bring yours?’”</p><p>“I can’t say much. I asked Ranma if they’d been in the back rooms of Shouganai first time I met them.” Akane said. “But wow. That’s cheesy.”</p><p>“Does that actually work?” Kodachi asked.</p><p>“Not usually immediately. But if you don’t pester someone about it and don’t act like an asshole when someone says no, then sometimes they remember you offered and come back to ask. Respectful and confident honesty is sexy. What’s Shouganai?”</p><p>“Wait, Nabiki never took you to Shouganai?” Ranma asked.</p><p>“It’s a sanctuary bar,” Akane said. “It’s pretty popular with denizens and LGBTQ. Nabiki found it after she turned.”</p><p>“Why haven’t you ever taken me to this place?” Xian Pu asked, rounding on Nabiki.</p><p>“I found it in the week we…weren’t speaking to each other.”</p><p>Xian Pu looked at Nabiki’s sister and the others and wisely didn’t comment on why they hadn’t been speaking at the time.</p><p>“When I next mentioned it, you said…” Nabiki started ticking off fingers “…’Dance clubs are boring.’ And ‘Why do I need to rent a room to have sex? I have rooms right here.’”</p><p>“Ahhh. Right. We should go there, maybe.” Xian Pu said before turning to the other three. “Anyway, can I kiss your partner?” Looked specifically at Ranma. “Can I kiss you? Yes or no, then we can get to other things?”</p><p>Ranma looked toward Akane and Kodachi. Akane shrugged and looked toward Kodachi.</p><p>“She seems to be acting with honest intentions.” Kodachi said. “If neither of you mind, I trust you.”</p><p>“Same, I trust you,” Akane said. </p><p>“Okay, sure. Fine, you can kiss me.” </p><p>Ranma started to turn his head to present a cheek but was surprised when Xian Pu pulled him into liplock and slipped her tongue into his mouth. She held the kiss for maybe three seconds before letting go and taking a breath. </p><p>“Kiss of Marriage is on the lips.” Xian Pu explained as Ranma stared at her.</p><p> “And the tongue is part of it?”</p><p>“Oh no, that was advertisement,” Xian Pu said, gesturing to Akane and Kodachi and then winking. “Word of mouth is best. Now, the main room is in here and what to try first? Colonize Mars? Build crazy castles? Stop eldritch abominations? Compete for control over the forest? Run magic shops?”</p><p>As she walked into the next room, Nabiki pushed her hand into her face and followed shaking her head.</p><p>“Didn’t she just say something about not pestering people?” Ranma asked.</p><p>“In all honesty, we hadn’t answered her yet and it was a good opportunity.” Kodachi said.</p><p>“Was she any good?” Akane asked, drawing looks from the other two. “I have to ask.”</p><p>“Yeah, yeah, she was good.”</p><p>“Are you three finished talking about me and ready to come in here now?” Xian Pu called from the next room.</p>
<hr/><p>“So, we really should have seen this coming.” Akane said as the final points were totaled up.</p><p>“I am a business minor.” Nabiki noted with a smile. “But hey, we colonized Mars.”</p><p>“What we should do is get Silke to join us then set them against each other.” Ranma said.</p><p>“I’m not sure that adding a second business-woman to the mix would help us too much.” Kodachi commented. "There's not much direct interaction with each other. It would just be two people very good at organizing versus four that are sort of good at it."</p><p>"Sort of good says the only person that came close to her score."</p><p>“Hmm, next game?”</p>
<hr/><p>“What is this game here?” Kodachi held the game out pointing to a picture with a tower out of which tentacles poured.</p><p>“You roll dice to complete puzzles but if you fail you pull tentacles out of the tower and it might drop marbles which could make bad things happen.”</p><p>“Interesting, what sort of bad things?”</p><p>“End of the world. Going insane and becoming evil. Some of the marbles are good.”</p><p>“If we play this game there is a fair chance I might have to become ‘insane and evil’?”</p><p>Xian Pu noted the woman’s interest suddenly draining away.</p><p>“Yeah, is there…oh. Right. I’ll just put that away then.”</p><p>Kodachi handed her the box and nodded. “Thank you. How about that one? It looks to have similar art. Will it do the same?”</p><p>“Well, there’s insanity, but it’s more like a broken leg. Makes things harder, but you can heal and still be a hero.”</p><p>“That one. I should very much like to play that one.”</p>
<hr/><p>“She’s so happy and hopeful! I have to sell her all the things that will keep her alive.”</p><p>“Well, maybe when the heroes lose they just go to the hospital or…uh…temple for a while.”</p><p>“That’s fine. You can beef up all the defense you want, I’m just going to load the asshole rich guy here with attack items and just let him die.”</p><p>“Asshole rich guy? Is that a comment?”</p><p>“Look at this guy’s face.” </p><p>“Ahhh…he looks like my brother, carry on.”</p>
<hr/><p>“Hey, you have RWBY DVDs?” </p><p>“That’s a board game.” Xian Pu said. “Are you saying there’s a show or something?”</p><p>“Yeah, it’s an American internet anime. Ranma and I watched the first two seasons on YouTube. It’s pretty good. Starts slow but the first episodes are really short.”</p><p>“What is it about?”</p><p>“Some kids at a school where they’re learning how to hunt monsters and be heroes.” </p><p>“What, like vampires and things?” Nabiki asked. “Are we talking Hades Oblivion? It’s not like Twilight is it?”</p><p>“Nah, the monsters are all weird animal things. And there are some criminals too.” Akane said. “And all the characters are martial artists with superpowers.”</p><p>“Huh. About how long is it?”</p><p>“The first two seasons were…four hours, I think?”</p><p>“Four and a half, I looked it up later.” Akane said. “Season three is another three hours.”</p><p>“So. Two, maybe three more board games.” Xian Pu said. “Or watching that.”</p>
<hr/><p>“That…that…” </p><p>“They…did they actually?”</p><p>“How many more seasons are to this anime?” </p><p>Xian Pu looked about towards the corners and quickly stood up heading to her bedroom. “I’ll be right back!”</p><p>She walked into her room and pulled her phone out of her pocket and quickly searched through YouTube and she started a video running. She looked about until she found a bundle of dark hair starting to grow out of her ceiling and pointed the phone toward her.</p><p>“Just a story. It’s not real, plus, look at this! Calm down.”</p><p>The pale face of the ghost rotated to look at the phone screen watched it for several minutes as the video progressed and then jerkily turned to look at Xian Pu before retreating back into the ceiling and vanishing. The Jokestuzoku woman breathed a long sigh of relief and wiped her forehead off of the sweat that had developed and then went back into the room.</p><p>“Is everything okay?”</p><p>“Kayako was a little upset.” Then she went to the board game and pulled out some cards with three pictures on them. “But also, the board game lets you beat up the assholes. Who do we want to kill?” One of the three cards in her hand was pulled up into the air and slapped onto the table. “Nevermind, Kayako wants us to kill him, so we’re killing him.”</p><p>“Agreed.”</p><p>“Fine by me.”</p><p>“We shall take the string puller later then and remove the brute now.” </p><p>“Awww, Velvet’s not an option.”</p>
<hr/><p>Darkness had predictably fallen by the time the dojo residents were heading out the door. Xian Pu showed them to the gate giving Nabiki a hug and a kiss before turning to the others. She put her arms on her waist and acted exhausted.</p><p>“Well, that was fun. Next time I have enough time off, let’s do it again. And hopefully more of that anime so we can see certain faces torn off.”</p><p>“Yeah, maybe do a few episodes at a time, or one board game and we can make it more regular?” Akane suggested.</p><p>“Maybe that will…” Xian Pu stopped as Nabiki’s phone chimed and she reached to pull it out.</p><p>“Ranma, registration is open for the Kyoto Invitational.” She said after a moment’s reading.</p><p>“I’ll get it when we get home.”</p><p>“Tournament?” Xian Pu asked.</p><p>“Yeah.” Ranma said. “We’re prepping to do the Gauntlet of Battle tournament, trying to rank up a bit.”</p><p>“Errr, I looked at that.” Xian Pu said. “The purses aren’t that good for the lower ranks.”</p><p>“We’re looking at the team bracket.” Akane said. “Ranma and I anyway. Kodachi’s undecided.”</p><p>“Perhaps next time,” the gymnast said. “If I decide to enter some form of competition again, I would not be able to reach your ranks by the time the event is set to begin. It would be a shame to drag your team rank down. Besides which, I would need to find a duelist division apparently, since my art is focused around the use of weapons.”</p><p>“I’m looking at one more freestyle event in Okinawa before we have to decide whether or not to register for the Gauntlet,” Akane noted. “Then we got four more months till the big one.” </p><p>“I fight in the duelist division.” Xian Pu said. “Heading to Hokkaido for a tournament soon.”</p><p>“I think I’d regret this, but are you interested in a team?”</p><p>Xian Pu opened her mouth, closed it again, furrowed her brow and started to slowly shake her head. “I don’t think it would be the best idea. I’d rather stay off the radar and not need to say ‘she’s actually my husband’ than poke the sleeping tiger you know? And fighting on a team with outsiders would…be poking the tiger with a hot poker.”</p><p>“What’s the worse that can happen?” Akane asked.</p><p>Xian Pu took a deep breath. “I don’t want to get into it right now. I’ve been having too much fun to end it on that. But it’s bad. All right? Some things I do, here I get words and disgusted looks. The village? Is a bit less forgiving.”</p><p>Nabiki looked over toward her sister’s cluster. “Hey, go on without me and tell Kasumi I’m staying the night, all right?”</p><p>Xian Pu scoffed and rocked on her heels once. “Do I get a say in this?”</p><p>“You get a say in whether I’m in the guest room or yours.” Nabiki said. She smirked as Xian Pu chuckled.</p><p>“Well, I suppose we should wish you good studies then and be off ourselves.” Kodachi suggested. “Darlings?”</p><p>“We’ll pass the message along.” Akane waved as she turned around.</p><p>“Have a good night.” </p><p>As Nabiki waved them off she turned toward Xian Pu and said. “We should have a talk about things you do and do not need forgiveness for. But first I think I need to remind you that I am a, what was it?” she switched to Cantonese. “Oh right. ‘a proper woman.’ That’s what you said, right.”</p><p>Xian Pu rolled her eyes dramatically as they stepped inside. “I apologized for that didn’t I?”</p><p>“Words and actions, Xian Pu.”</p><p>“I’ll show you actions.”</p>
<hr/><p>Nabiki showed up around noon the next day looking smug and satisfied.</p><p>“Guess she didn’t stab you through the heart with a wooden stake then.” Ranma quipped.</p><p>“It wasn’t wood or a stake or through my heart, but part of that statement happened.”</p><p>Kasumi sighed and looked at her. “I don’t need to hear details, please.” She turned to look at Akane. “From any of my sisters? Or their loved ones? I can figure out enough just fine on my own, thank you. I’m glad you had a good visit yesterday. I’ll remind you that the dojo is being rented out today for the middle school kendo team party in about two hours. Nabiki are you still fine to act as photographer?”</p><p>“Today is clear and I’m feeling…appreciated.”</p><p>“You have the kendo club here?”</p><p>“It’s the one place that Ku…Tatewaki is not allowed to show up.”</p><p>“Ahhhh, yes. When I came home the first day brother was making some sort of stink about that.”</p><p>“Well, then would you three like, to help or do you have other plans?” </p><p>“You’re still going to the Imperial Gardens?” Ranma asked Akane and Kodachi.</p><p>“I believe that’s today, yes.” Kodachi said, looking toward Akane for confirmation.</p><p>“Yeah. That’s our plan.”</p><p>“Okay, I’ll hang out and help around here, then.”</p><p>“Thank you very much, Ranma.”</p>
<hr/><p>Ranma sighed as a water glass spilled over and the curse was triggered. Standing up, the martial artist walked out of the room trying to draw as little attention as possible and moving to the restroom to get some hot water. Coming back Ranma sat down and ignored the handful of kids pointing and whispering. </p><p>“Excuse me.” </p><p>The voice was one of the mothers as she passed by behind Ranma. </p><p>“No problem.”</p><p>The martial artist tried to shift out of the way, eyeing the woman’s drink, but walked into the path of one of the club sponsors with a tray of ice water that was soon all over Ranma with a clatter and a crash. This time everybody was watching and Ranma shook the water off. </p><p>“Oh, sorry I didn’t mean to…weren’t you a man a moment ago?”</p><p>“I stepped in your way, no problem.” Ranma said, ignoring the question and then turning to look at Kasumi. “I’m going to go change into something dry and be right back.”</p><p>“All right, Ranma,” Kasumi said as she came over to explain things to the coach.</p><p>Ranma came back with hair still red and wearing a black shirt now before going back to helping and stopped as she remembered that she had been serving the hot tea. She spent maybe three minutes serving tea before a bokken slipped out as she was walking. She got over it nimbly enough but didn’t successfully keep all the teacups from spilling and got a face full of hot tea and Ranma’s hair was black again. The tray got set down quickly and without spilling anything else and then the tea was getting washed off and back to red hair.</p><p>Things seemed to calm down a bit after that for about five minutes. But then a spray of hot liquid hit the back of Ranma’s neck. The martial artist turned around to see where the spray came from and another spray of cold water came from behind. There was laughter and chatter, but it was starting to blend together. There were a couple more sprays of water and it was getting difficult to judge distances. The martial artist stumbled out of dojo tripping over the first step and stumbling through the hallway before sliding down to the floor out of sight and trying not to hyperventilate.</p><p>“Ranma. Are you all right?” </p><p>Snapping to look at the voice and seeing Kasumi standing there.</p><p>“I…I…which am I?”</p><p>Kasumi knelt down and set a hand on Ranma’s shoulder. “Take a breath and then you decide. Because I can’t tell until you do.”</p><p>The martial artist nodded and spent several seconds just slowing her breathing and wiping at her face. She was too tall. Standing up, she took a few steps into the furo and splashed her face with cold water and then dried off. </p><p>“Feel better?”</p><p>The red-head nodded.</p><p>“I can sort of make myself shift.” She said. “In here. If I try hard enough. Sometimes it doesn’t work. Sometimes it’s easier to find water. How many times did I change?”</p><p>“I wasn’t counting.” Kasumi said. “Close to ten one way or another I think before we reached the culprits.”</p><p>“Kids can be assholes.” Ranma said, leaning against the wall. “It ain’t the first time I’ve been disoriented by people changing me. In a fight I can see it coming and be ready for it. I should have been able to handle that.”</p><p>“It’s exhausting to keep that aware at all times. You can’t always be prepared. Are you settled on being a woman right now?”</p><p>Ranma nodded. “I sort of drift female if I’m trying to calm down. It’s easier to stay female than male and my head has sort of associated with that somehow? I think. Whatever.”</p><p>“What makes you drift male?” </p><p>“Trying new things. New shows, new hobbies, studying, learning. I don’t know, just do most things first as a guy. It’s why I started this that way. Everything else is just sort of fifty/fifty or floating somewhere in-between. I don’t know. Maybe there’s no reason. Maybe it just is.”</p><p>“I was afraid you’d say getting upset for a moment.”</p><p>“God would that be unhealthy.”</p><p>There was a sharp rapping on the wall and the two turned to see Nabiki standing there. “Sorry, the coaches want them to apologize. If you’re okay with that.”</p><p>“Are you fine with that Ranma? If not, you can just go rest.”</p><p>“Nah, I can do that.” The martial artist said, pushing away from the wall. “Let’s go.”</p><p>When they came into the room, Ranma’s eye went from the four kids standing together at the doors out to the yard to one of the sitting kids sporting an eye that was quickly bruising as her mother held an ice pack to it. Her eyes traced back to the other four kids and the bloody knuckle one of the guilty kids had.</p><p>“Now, you four! Go on.”</p><p>“Just a second, why’d she get hit?” Ranma asked, pointing toward the girl.</p><p>The four kids stood there silently before the coach loudly prompted them. “Well?”</p><p>“She broke my squirt gun.”</p><p>“What’s her name?”</p><p>“That’s Chiba Kirino.” The coach said.</p><p>“She needs an apology too.”</p><p>“You know you’re right.” He said, gesturing for the girl come up and stand beside Ranma.</p><p>“Umm, yessir.” She held the ice pack to her face and stood there.</p><p>Then turning to the four boys and girls that had been lined up. “Now, you lot, what do you have to say for yourselves?”</p><p>“We’re sorry Saotome-San.” They said collectively. “We’re sorry Chiba-chan.”</p><p>“Can I say something?” Ranma asked.</p><p>“I think that’s fair.”</p><p>“If you lot stay in the martial arts, you’re going to meet a lot of cool people. But there will be people that make martial artists look bad. Don’t be those a…” she grimaced and swallowed the word. “Don’t be the bullies, don’t be the person everybody else is ashamed of. Got it? Better to lose protecting someone than win hurting someone.”</p><p>“We understand.” They said sullenly. </p><p>“Okay, sit down, and maybe I can show you a trick. Kasumi can I have a couple cups, empty please?”</p><p>“Certainly, Ranma, one moment.” </p><p>Ranma waited for the oni to bring her the asked for cups and held them out on the flat palms of her hands.</p><p>“Normally, you’d do this with water in the cups, but I’m a little flustered.”</p><p>She began to rotate her palms, keeping them at the same time and contorting her body to twist under the cups as they passed through where they stood. </p><p>“This is a tai-chi thing for learning to keep your balance and control your body.” </p><p>She was still moving fluidly as she spoke and increasing speed but keeping it at a level that the kids and parents could watch easily and wouldn’t ruin the pictures Nabiki was taking. Then she started doing it while shifting from one foot to another, keeping her hands and the cups at the same vertical level and shifting them about horizontally but staying in the same basic five square feet. After about thirty seconds she slowed down and returned to the original stance before handing the cups over to Kasumi and then looked back to the kids.</p><p>“You meet someone like me that’s trying to hurt people, you absolutely do what you did and keep them so disoriented they can’t think. That’s just smart. But in competition it’s dishonorable and as a ‘joke’, it’s just cruel. Got it?”</p><p>Several rapt, wide-eyed staring kids nodded rapidly at her. Ranma turned to Kirino and smiled at her. “You’re going to do well, kid. Keep at it.”</p><p>“Uh, thank you, Saotome-san.”</p><p>“Kasumi, I’m going to go for a walk, okay?”</p><p>“Certainly, Ranma. Have a good time.”</p><p>Ranma nodded and walked out of dojo, heading for the genkan and her shoes. She was still rattled, that was obvious to her, but she thought the only other people there that could tell were Kasumi and Nabiki. She walked out of the dojo grounds and made her way to the drainage ditch and the fence, burning energy by practicing walking along its edge. It wasn’t difficult so she picked up speed and then leaped from it to a rooftop and bounced from that to another building and from there to another. She thought back to one of Kodachi’s routines during a night-run and started trying to approximate it.</p><p>Somewhere in the middle of that, she shifted into he without the body shifting. Ranma wasn’t quite sure when it happened, but it did reinforce the guess he had given Kasumi about what made him drift one way or another. He did wonder, halfway through a cartwheel sequence that felt like it approached within sight of Kodachi when she wasn’t trying, whether he was right about drifting female when he was calming down. Because, really, what he was doing now was calming, just in a different way. Maybe it was the whole meditative thing or focusing internally that made him shift to her? Or maybe it was just the whole barrage of physical changes had him fragile in the head right now?</p><p>He landed on the street and sighed. “Fuck it. I’ve changed back and forth on theories a dozen times.” </p><p>His phone beeped and he pulled it out to read the text.</p><p>/Hey, we got a text from Kasumi. Are you okay?/</p><p>/Better now. It’s mostly just annoying. I couldn’t tell how tall I was at one point or…well what I was./</p><p>/Ranma-darling. That’s a dissociative event. That is not ‘just annoying’./</p><p>/Don’t worry about it. I’m fine now. Don’t let me ruin your date./</p><p>/We’re coming to you. Where are you?/</p><p>Ranma looked across the street and saw a restaurant there with a make-shift cardboard sign reading: “Sign getting delivered late, come inside for amazing okonomiyaki.”</p><p>/An okonomiyaki restaurant. Let me share a pin./</p><p>/Okay, wait there./</p><p>/Thanks./</p><p>Ranma put his phone back into his pocket and then felt around for his wallet, rolling his eyes as he realized it wasn’t there. He’d have to wait for Akane and Kodachi before he could order anything apparently. Unless they had ways for him to pay with his phone which was starting to become a thing that happened in some places in Japan, though mostly near where tourists were.</p><p>He stepped in and smiled at the waitress. “You guys are open, right?”</p><p>“Yes, we are miss, welcome to…oh, I’m sorry sir.”</p><p>“Huh?” Ranma said blinking.</p><p>“Sorry, I saw the flinch when I said miss.”</p><p>Ranma sighed and slumped. “Right, thank you. I might be a miss again soon though. It’s…flip-flopping a bit.” She waved her hands about her head.</p><p>“Oh, fluid. I see. There’s a good quiet booth in the back if you want to catch up to yourself.”</p><p>“I’m meeting some people here in a bit and walked out of the house without my wallet, so just water for now. Okay?”</p><p>“That’s perfectly fine. I’m Konatsu, I’ll be your waitress when you’re ready.”</p><p>“Thank you.”</p><p>Ranma worked his way to the back and sat in a circular booth and just sat down, trying to catch his breath. He wasn’t sure how long it was before Akane and Kodachi arrived, but he was still a he, making him again uncertain of what he’d told Kasumi. Kodachi was wearing her characteristic black, a blouse, velvet jacket and slacks. She rolled over the table and landed in the seat next to him before wrapping him up in a hug. Akane was removing a wide-brimmed sun-hat and wearing a long yellow sun dress that reached to the top of her ankles. She moved into the booth a bit more conventionally and slower but also wrapped her arms around him.</p><p>“Ooof, I’m not dying or anything.” He chuckled and it was an honest laugh.</p><p>“This helps when you do it for me,” Kodachi said, holding tight. “So, you will be hugged Saotome Ranma.”</p><p>Further up in the restaurant, a utensil clattered to a counter.</p><p>“Do you want to talk about it?”</p><p>“Yeah, but later. I just want to be here with you and have something to eat right now.”</p><p>The waitress was standing a respectful distance away with a smile on her face waiting for the three to partially disengage and wave her over.</p><p>“And what may I get for you today?” </p><p>Ranma didn’t look at the cover of the menu, moving right to the varieties of okonomiyaki on offer. Akane ordered quickly while Kodachi took a fair amount of time to look over the different offerings and asking for clarifications on each. Konatsu nodded at each order and then politely answered Kodachi’s various questions before the young woman settled on a basic okonomiyaki.</p><p>The conversation turned to the trip to the imperial flowers and the photos they’d taken on the phones. Kodachi was clearly still trying to get used to using the smartphones as her photos were a bit shaky and at angles, but she definitely had a good eye for flowers…and Akane. Akane’s photos were a bit more to do with the landscaping and buildings…and Kodachi. There was one photo on each phone where they’d each posed for someone else taking the photo. </p><p>On Kodachi’s phone it was a photo of her sitting on one of Akane’s shoulders, feet resting in one of the larger woman’s hands, and one arm wrapped about her neck. The other two hands were holding each other. The gymnast was only a bit taller than Ranma’s female form, mostly due to long legs, but it still looked almost comically impossible.</p><p>Akane’s phone had an image of Akane carrying Kodachi over the bridge, cradled in her arms and one of Kodachi’s arms around her neck. Her hat had been caught on a breeze and the picture had been snapped in the middle of the smaller woman reaching out to snatch it before the wind pulled it into the stream below the foot bridge.</p><p>“Oh wow, those are great pictures.” Ranma said.</p><p>“Yeah it was fun. You should let Kodachi take you sometime.”</p><p>“I’m sorry to cut it short.”</p><p>“Stop it,” Kodachi said. “We were already deciding on a restaurant when Kasumi told us you might be upset. You cut nothing short.”</p><p>The waitress came over, glancing toward Ranma furtively, as she started to pass the okonomiyaki out. “One basic. One Osaka special, and for you, sir. With the chef’s compliments.” </p><p>Ranma looked down at his okonomiyaki as it slid in front of him and saw the word “Ranchan” written in okonomiyaki sauce. He stared at it for a long moment, blinking and wondering if he was still somehow freaking out in the dojo.</p><p>“Hey, like the red hair.”</p><p>Akane and Kodachi tensed beside Ranma and the martial artist slowly craned to look up at the speaker. They were tall and slender, with a ponytail and sharp facial features. A bandolier of spatulas crossed their chest and brown eyes were fixed on him.</p><p>“Ucchan?”</p><p>“You got it, Ranma-honey. Long time no see. Does your father still have my dad’s old cart?”</p><p>“What?”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>At first the section at the beginning was just supposed to be "Xian Pu learns about Ranma's curse." But then it stretched out.</p><p>Yes, Xian Pu has an extensive contact list. She's been in Japan for three years and is very social. She has a small list of friends, sexual and otherwise, that she sees regularly and most of that is non-sexual. And you can be sure that people that think "any time I talk you I get to have sex" have been removed from her list.</p><p>The games played are Terraforming Mars, Eldritch Horror, Bargain Quest, and RWBY Combat Ready. Tower of Madness is the one that Kodachi noped out of. My siblings and I had fun with it, but there was a bit when my brother was just drowned in insanity marbles on a single pull and forced to turn evil. I couldn't see that turning out well if that happened to Kodachi because it was a hefty loss of agency that would cut too close to home. Meanwhile, Eldritch Horror has similar things, but allows for the the heroes to struggle past their issues, and I can really sympathize with the idea of playing a character who faces and defeats their own internal difficulties. Bargain Quest is a game where you play shopkeepers selling to adventurers. Every round the adventurers come in to buy gear and you get more reputation and money based on how your adventurer performs and some of the adventurers, like the basic mage, are really adorable and hopeful looking so that it feels bad when you have no gear that will keep them alive. Then there's the rich jerk with no real specials save being able to buy everything because he just buys stuff without really knowing how to use it. RWBY Combat Ready, sadly, is actually only 2-4 players, but comes with 5 playable characters, so I posited a version with 5 player rules.</p><p>Hades Oblivion is a fictional anime I made up for a superhero character whose power was emulating characters she felt strongly about from her favorite stories. It was a Castlevania-esque story with a main character witch and a main villain who was a sauve and manipulative werewolf that enjoyed corrupting and tormenting people. I pull it out every once in a while when I need a bit of Victorian monster-hunting fiction that won't interfere with crossover references.</p><p>A note on RWBY, I really love that show. People will sometimes respond by pointing out the flaws it has, and it has quite a few, but it is just a very fun story with good action and characters I love. That said. It also has a very well-executed example of a gaslighting, abusive ex-significant other. This person is very much a villain and the show makes no attempt to show him as anything else. He's had some bad things happen to him which he uses to justify his behavior, but he is just a very bad person. And the execution of what he is feels to me like it deserves a content warning.</p><p>The Joketsuzoku village in this is a very regressive society. I almost had Xian Pu list all the punishments they'd give her for what reasons, but ultimately decided that she doesn't want to think about it so why would she say it outloud.</p><p>I started with trying to find some clear male/female internal triggers for Ranma but ultimately decided that, a lot of that is just guess work. In many ways, Ranma has flimsy control over both their body and their internal gender. Sometimes they can nudge one easier than another and that gives them a sort of control that works most of the time, but not always. </p><p>I don't have Ranma's issues. I'm cis-male. I'm fairly confident I'm Aro and uncertain if Ace or not. I have had panic responses, usually to laryngitis, which I wasn't sure were panic responses for years. And I've spiralled which I'm not sure is a dissociative event but is the closest personal event I could use to model what happened to Ranma. I can go months or years between such events but then have something completely ridiculous trigger one out of nowhere. People who don't experience this stuff think that you can just list triggers and sometimes you can, but sometimes there's just no logic to it. In fact, being aware that what triggered you is "silly" just makes it worse and makes you spiral harder. I wish there was logic to this crap. (removed some info related to personal experiences, partially to make room for other notes.)</p><p>Regarding Kodachi barrel-hugging Ranma. Not the best way for everybody, these three, yes...I've already had them using physical contact to comfort and calm Kodachi, so she'd be confident they'd respond well likewise. But if someone where to hug me out of nowhere, there's a fair chance I'd panic and freak out. I actually had to train myself into tolerance of that because I spent so long teaching little kids. So, hugs are not a cureall, but if you know someone who responds well to contact, go for it.</p><p>Regarding Ukyou they have really bad timing for pulling that surprise, but it's not like they could know that.</p><p>And, yes, "they."</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0013"><h2>13. Opening Woes</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The issues of opening a new restaurant.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Come on, sugar, don’t act like it’s a surprise. My name’s on the restaurant.” </p><p>“Uh, dear, the sign didn’t get delivered today, remember.” Konatsu said.</p><p>The chef looked back to the entrance and grimaced, messaging their forehead. “I’d blocked that out. But the menus….” </p><p>“I warned you to be a bit gentle.” Konatsu noted.</p><p>They looked to the table where Ranma was still staring open mouthed and the two women beside the red-head who both seemed to be deciding whether or not hostility was called for. The chef shook their head and grabbed a chair to pull up to the booth.</p><p>“Sorry, I was trying to be cautious. Heck I wasn’t even sure if you would remember me. We were six years old last time we saw each other.”</p><p>“Nah, I remember. We played like every day, and I still remember your okonomiyaki. What are you doing here? How…how’ve you been?”</p><p>“We’re running a restaurant. And we’re doing good.” Ukyou said. They lifted their hand to point out the ring there and looked up toward Konatsu. “We were on the road for a while cooking from a cart. Came to Tokyo when we had enough money to start a place. How’s your father?”</p><p>Ranma shuffled about uncomfortably. “I try to avoid Pop these days.”</p><p>“Unfortunately, my father sees him as a friend.” Akane said. “So, he comes by the house every so often makes himself a pain in the ass.”</p><p>“How’re your folks?” Ranma asked.</p><p>“I talk to mom off and on, but…” the chef paused a moment “…my dad doesn’t agree with some of the directions of my life.”</p><p>“Ahh, yeah. Pop isn’t really happy with my curse.” </p><p>“It’s not really a good idea to refer to that as a curse.” Konatsu said warningly.</p><p>“Huh?” Ranma asked. “Oh, not that…uh. Can you get me some hot water.”</p><p>“Just hot water?” Konatsu asked. “Or do you mean tea?”</p><p>“Nah, hot water.” Ranma said. Konatsu started to turn away and the martial artist spoke up. “And cold water. I’m actually finally getting comfortable, so I think I’ll change right back.”</p><p>“Change…all right.” Konatsu said, nodding as she walked away.</p><p>“So, uh, you three are a thing?” Ukyou asked. “How’d that work out?”</p><p>“Ranma and I met at university event,” Akane said.</p><p>“Then they helped me deal with a personal issue.” Kodachi said. “One situation progressed naturally into another and here we are.”</p><p>“Could have been worse.” Ranma said. “We could have met three days later.”</p><p>Akane rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Yeah, if that had been the first time we met, that would have been horrible.”</p><p>“I assume this was the infamous engagement situation.” Kodachi said casually.</p><p>“An engagement? And infamous? So, what’s this about?” The chef looked between the three. “Or is that asking too much?”</p><p>Akane leaned forward as Konatsu returned with the requested cups of water. “So, my dad and Ranma’s dad are old friends and at some point, they decided they were going to engage their kids. And they sprung this on us just this year.”</p><p>Kodachi blinked and shook her head. “If there is a standing arrangement, you’d think they’d have told you about it much younger.”</p><p>“Or just not arrange a marriage like it’s the still the shogunate?” Akane asked.</p><p>“That actually works better, yes.” Kodachi said after a moment.</p><p>“Wow.” Ukyou said. “So, by the time we even met, you were already engaged to be married. Weird.” </p><p>Kodachi stared at her intently for a few moments before taking a sip from her water.</p><p>“And had no idea about it either.” Ranma said, identifying the cup of hot water. “But I was a kid anyway, doubt I’d have understood it. Okay…this may be weird.”</p><p>“We’ve traveled the streetfighting tournament for years,” Ukyou said. “We’ve seen weird.”</p><p>Ranma shrugged and poured the water over their head, causing red-hair to turn black and anatomy to rearrange itself. Then reaching for the cool water and turning back to their smaller, cold-water form. She took a deep breath and then released it. “Okay, I think I'm back to normal now. Those both felt okay.”</p><p>Kodachi and Akane reached in to hug Ranma again.</p><p>“What curse is this?” Konatsu asked.</p><p>“Jusenkyo pool of drowned girl.” Ranma said. “Why?”</p><p>“Is there a way to stabilize it?” Ukyou asked.</p><p>“You mean lock my form?” Ranma asked. “Yeah, I’ve had that happen. I don’t want to be stuck in one form though and I tend not to react to well to it.”</p><p>“Oh, no, for Konatsu here.” Ukyou said.</p><p>“We’re investigating alternatives.” The waitress explained. “You know…alternatives.”</p><p>Ranma nodded in understanding almost immediately. Akane wasn’t too far behind though Kodachi remained looking confused for a bit more before gasping.</p><p>“Oh, to change your physical sex. I understand.”</p><p>“We’ve looked into a few things. Everything has risks or obligations attached.” Konatsu said, giving Kodachi a nod.</p><p>“This seems promising, Natsu-chan.” Ukyou said.</p><p>“If I might ask, out of curiosity. What are the other alternatives you are looking at?”</p><p>“I’m currently on HRT.” Konatsu said. “And we’ve looked into SRS, which has the least metaphysical ramifications. Becoming a succubus was an option but it means fealty to the Aenslands and I’m not sure about doing that. Plus there’s the issue of eating and me being monogamous.”</p><p>“There was the nanite reconstruction thing.” Ukyou pointed out. </p><p>“Yeah, but I’d have an even chance of coming out of it inorganic which would make having a family complicated. And maintaining that will be more expensive than being human.”</p><p>“Most of our options make having a family complicated. We could adopt.” The chef pointed out. “Or I could carry a child. I haven’t had that surgery yet.”</p><p>“I’m not making you do that, Ukyou-dear.”</p><p>“Wasn’t there a genetic modification thing a while back?” Akane asked.</p><p>“Do you remember the company that offered that procedure?” Konatsu asked.</p><p>“No, who was it?”</p><p>“Umbrella.” Ukyou said.</p><p>“Oh, right. That would be a hard no.”</p><p>“But this Jusenkyo curse sounds very possible. There’s no dietary issue with it, is there? Or other weirdness.” Konatsu turned to look at Ranma.</p><p>“No, I eat a lot but that might not be the curse,” Ranma said. “It is a curse though. Curses aren’t wired to make things easy.” She thought about it a bit. “Someone told me once they’re like deliberately unstable bundles of foreign magic.”</p><p>“Yeah, it could just become some other problem.” Konatsu said with a sigh.</p><p>“Yeah, at the least, I can tell you from experience, a curse that seems to fix your problem will mess with any of the actual solutions to your problem.”</p><p>“Did you get the curse on purpose?” Ukyou asked.</p><p>“Nah, I didn’t even know I was fluid when I got the curse.” Ranma said. “You see, Jusenkyo is an old martial artist training ground, and Pop thought it would be a good idea to train there.”</p><p>Ukyou sighed and put their palm into their face as Konatsu shook her head. </p><p>“I mean, it’s why I figured out I was fluid, and it feels useful sometimes, but there are other solutions I could be trying if this thing weren’t in the way. You know, something where I actually controlled what I was?”</p><p>“Same,” Akane said. “My curse has gotten in the way of a lot energy manipulation techniques I thought might help control it. Curses are not good options.”</p><p>“You’ve got a curse too?” Konatsu asked.</p><p>“Fused with a lightning spirit.” Akane said. “Keeping it sealed messes with my energy or something.”</p><p>“You should go at least try talk to Makoto about those lessons she offered.”</p><p>“Yeah, maybe.”</p><p>“Have you tried an exorcism?” Konatsu asked. “If you’re possessed…”</p><p>“Fused, not possessed. If we’re separated, we both die. I’ve tried meditation to talk to it…but it’s, I don’t know, animal like? And it’s hard to make it understand I’m not the one that did this to us.”</p><p>“Ahhh.”</p><p>“You could go to Shouganai and talk to Carmilla.” Akane said. “I expect she knows a few options that way.”</p><p>“What’s Shouganai and who’s Carmilla?” Konatsu asked. </p><p>Behind them, the bell tingled drawing attention from the chef and the waitress.</p><p>“Well, we’d better get back to work. The food’s on the house today…” Ukyou stood up to walk to their station and stopped to turn around. “Max of three helpings per person. I know what martial artists can eat.”</p><p>Ranma chuckled. “Thanks, Ucchan.”</p><p>The chef waved over their shoulder and went back behind the counter.</p><p>“Please continue to enjoy your stay.” Konatsu said as she turned to welcome the new customers.</p><p>People began to trickle in, keeping Ukyou and Konatsu’s attention mostly on work, but they kept an eye on the back booth until the three left, leaving an address for this Shouganai club written down, and waving goodbye. Konatsu smiled as they left and then turned toward Ukyou, eyeing the remaining handful of customers before speaking.</p><p>“You decided not to tell them.” </p><p>“Yeah, well, you were right, Ranma didn’t know anything about it. No point in bringing it up. The one woman, Kodachi, I think, gave me a look when we were talking about the engagement though.”</p><p>“But she didn’t say anything. And we know Genma’s around.” Konatsu said in a testing tone.</p><p>Ukyou laughed. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to go hunting him down or anything. Let my father do that if he wants. I got my life. But it is good to know there’s a thief in the area.”</p><p>“Agreed. And who knows, maybe this Carmilla person can help with our other concerns. I wonder they think she might have some options for us.”</p><p>“I don’t know maybe she’s some sort of wizard or something.”</p>
<hr/><p>“You jackasses were supposed to be here two days ago!” Ukyou snapped. “We had a full day without a sign and today now we have to shut down so you can everything set up.”</p><p>“I’m going to walk to the new pharmacy, Ukyou-dear.” Konatsu said. “Do you need anything from the supermarket on the way back?”</p><p>“Just a second…” Ukyou said, holding their hand out to the foreman who grimaced angrily. “Nothing for the restaurant. But I think we’re short on milk for our kitchen. Some cocoa, winter’s coming. Maybe some garlic. And uh…what did I run out of last night? Oh, right. Tofu. Maybe some snacks.”</p><p>Konatsu nodded mouthing along and moving her eyes to look up as she listened, one hand miming short writing motions. Then looking back to Ukyou’s face as the chef finished. “All right then. I’ll be back with that.”</p><p>“Thanks, Natsu-chan.” Ukyou said before turning back to foreman. “Now you, what the hell are you going to do to compensate me for two days of disrupted business?”</p><p>“Look, buddy. The longer you yell at me, the longer it takes to do the job.”</p><p>Ukyou looked to where the crew was already working just fine and then glared at the foreman. “There’s not room over there for you to fit even if you planned to help. You’re going to charge for the work of three people even if it only takes two, I think I’ve paid for the right to chew a new orifice out of your hide!”</p><p>Konatsu left waving and walked along the road towards the pharmacy address that she had been directed to. There weren’t many people inside, so she walked to the cash register as the purple-haired clerk with a name tag reading “Xian Pu” looked up and smiled at her approach. </p><p>“How may I help you.”</p><p>Konatsu froze and stared over the woman’s shoulder where her shadow was cast on the wall. The purple-haired woman seemed to notice and glanced over before turning back to the waitress and leaning forward conspiratorially. </p><p>“My friend and I have an arrangement. There’s no problem.”</p><p>Konatsu turned to look at her, weighing her options on the matter. The clerk seemed to be aware of the yurei and not worried about it however, so she slowly backed down. “Ohh, well then I’m here to pick up a prescription.” Konatsu said. “Kuonji Konatsu.”</p><p>“All right, please sit down. The pharmacist will call you when your prescription is ready and give you the instructions.” The purple-haired woman gave her a wide smile, straightening and returning.</p><p>Konatsu looked around the mostly empty pharmacy but did move to sit down and wait. It wasn’t long before her name was called, and she stepped up to the counter to receive the standard explanations on how to use the medicine and what side-effects it was likely to cause. She could have pointed out that she’d been receiving the prescription for some time, but it was a new pharmacy so they likely had some legal boxes to check. Then she took her bag to the cash register and the purple-haired clerk again. </p><p>“All right, let’s see here…huh Dr. Ono?” the woman said. “He’s the one that encouraged me to enter the university.”</p><p>“Oh, well it is an amazingly small world. Yesterday one of my spouse’s childhood friends walked into our restaurant.”</p><p>“Is that good or bad?” The woman asked. “I wouldn’t want to meet a lot of my childhood friends.”</p><p>“It was pretty good.” She said. “They seemed like a nice people.”</p><p>“Good.” She said. “Have a good day.”</p><p>Konatsu nodded and turned to leave the building and head on to the supermarket. This should have been a quick trip though, there wasn’t much to get. She turned toward the diary aisle and paused at the sight of a woman with oni horns looking over the ice cream selection. She could tell the woman was an actual oni the same way she felt the yurei watching out of the clerk’s shadow. There was a sort of haze that pushed past the visual and hung about her. Then the woman straightened and turned to look at her with a smile and Konatsu realized she’d probably been thinking a little too loudly.</p><p>“Hello there, are you new to the neighborhood or just passing through?” </p><p>“Oh, we just moved here.” The waitress said. “Sorry, I don’t mean to stare. It’s just a bit of a surprise.”</p><p>The oni nodded. “Well, being public is a bit fresh. I was still human when Pine Box, Texas happened and magic was made public. The first denizens started getting made public about a month after I changed? Then the Aensland Ascendancy happened and the first Makai embassy. I probably would have been nervous as well.”</p><p>“And now you’re an oni in the shopping center.” Konatsu said, getting a smile out of the woman.</p><p>“It’s funny how things work out.”</p><p>“If I might ask, we’re close to winter and…” Konatsu gestured toward the ice cream.</p><p>“Oh, a friend of mine had a bad day yesterday after helping me with something.” The oni explained. “They like ice cream, so I thought I’d stock some as an extra thank you. Just, on the sly you know?” She winked conspiratorially.</p><p>“Just a moment.” She pulled out her phone and started typing into it.</p><p>/There’s an oni in the supermarket./</p><p>/Do you need help?/</p><p>/No, it’s just a conversation. Was wondering about the menu idea you had./</p><p>/I mean, I don’t want to make you look like a jackass by asking the first random denizen, “hey what’s good food for you?”/</p><p>/I think I can avoid that, dear. And maybe she knows a few other people./</p><p>/Yeah, that makes sense./</p><p>The oni stood there patiently and waited as the young woman set her phone away and looked up. “My spouse and I had an idea about offering a denizen menu and…well, we’re a bit stuck on who to ask about that.”</p><p>“That’s a bit broad.” The oni said. “Denizens cover a lot of different species. I can tell you I cook with blessed water from the Hakuba Shrine and rice from the same. But that’ll only help you with spirit types. Demons, angels…you know. Maybe you could look to the Makai embassy, hmmm. Hold on, one of my sister’s friend is a medical student with a focus on ‘inhuman’ biology. Maybe I can direct her to your restaurant it’s not cuisine, but maybe it will help. My sisters have also mentioned a club…I believe the name is Shouganai.”</p><p>“Oh, yeah, we heard about that yesterday.” Konatsu said. “And you said the Hakuba shrine.”</p><p>“I’ll send word that you were interested. What was the name of your restaurant?” She pulled out her phone and started typing on it.</p><p>“Thank you. That’ll be very helpful. It’s Ucchan’s.”</p><p>The oni looked up and then gave the waitress a close look up and down. “Oh, I believe you met one my sisters and her partners yesterday. Ranma mentioned that name.”</p><p>“Was your sister the spirit host or the gymnast?”</p><p>“I’m Akane’s sister, Kasumi.” The oni said. “There’s one more sister, but she’s usually not out of the house much while the sun’s out except to go to classes and such. Kodachi has a brother…but you’re better off not encountering him.”</p><p>“Note taken.” Konatsu said. “I should finish my shopping, thanks for the suggestions and have a good day.”</p>
<hr/><p>Ukyou slipped the phone back in their packet and shook their head as the work crew drove off down the street in their Elf truck. The chef took a few minutes to sweep up around the entrance, clearing the left-over dust and debris from installing the sign, and then went back into the store.</p><p>The bell to the door rang bringing Ukyou’s attention to it and the tall cat-eared woman that came in ahead of young girl. The cat-woman pushed their glasses onto their faces and waved. “Hey. You needed a security system installed?”</p><p>“Right, thanks for coming.” Ukyou said. “Can you hide it. Cause I’ve got reliable word a jackass of a martial artist thief is in the area and I wanted an upgrade.”</p><p>“Oh. Hmm. Well. Okay. So off-site recording, high speed, broad light spectrum. Right. We can do this.” The little girl knocked on the counter, drawing attention to where she sat and started to sign. The tall cat-woman nodded and pointed to the girl. “Right. She brings up a good point…”</p><p>“Yeah, audio too.” Ukyou said and signing back to the girl, much slower. “My wife suggested we learn.”</p><p>“Ahhh, cool. Your wife is non-verbal?”</p><p>Ukyou shrugged. “Ninja.”</p><p>“Oh, that makes sense too. Right. Okay then. I’ll get started.”</p><p>“Thanks,” Ukyou said. “Want anything to eat as a bonus?”</p><p>“Hmmm, that’ll be good, thanks.”</p><p>Between the two of them, they had the cameras, hidden as ceiling decorations, installed fairly quickly and settled in the back to eat and test the feed and recording.</p><p>A few moments later the bell ringed and Ukyou looked up to see two men entering into the store. One of them had long black hair and a thin mustache while wearing a black martial arts gi. Behind him, was the person that Ukyou fixated on: a bulky bald man with a bandanna and a pair of glasses wearing a white gi that was much dingier and dirtier than the other man’s. The chef stared in a bit of disbelief that he would come in just like that. The sign was there today, so it would have been clear to anybody entering. But there he was, just walking in and sitting down.</p><p>“I tell you, Tendou, banks are the ruin of good family unity.” He said sitting down. </p><p>“Really, Kasumi manages our household account quite efficiently and the girls never seem to be late with their part of the expenses.”</p><p>“You see, there’s the problem. Your children are managing the household when it should be you. What would happen if you were to walk into the bank and ask for access to your money?”</p><p>“I’ve never had a problem accessing my account.”</p><p>“You have access to the household account?” the bald man said, leaning in forward.</p><p>“I have access to my account, but Kasumi has the only access to household account. It’s for the best, there was an incident with a card player.”</p><p>“See, you are denied access to your own money.”</p><p>“I have my own bank account, the household account is, as Kasumi reminded, me mostly filled by my daughters not me.”</p><p>Genma scoffed in disgust. “They’re you’re children. They don’t have money. It’s legally yours.” He turned to where Ukyou was glaring at him. “One of the…uh Kansai specials please.”</p><p>“Anything to drink?” Ukyou asked, glaring.</p><p>“Sure, Sapporo, please.” He paused and turned back to look at the chef, shaking his head and looking away. “Do you see what I mean, Tendou?”</p><p>“Have you already started drinking, Saotome. My girls are all in their 20s. They’re adults under the eyes of the law.” Tendou looked up toward Ukyou. “I’ll just have the basic okonomiyaki and then also a Sapporo.”</p><p>“Ahh, Tendou, our children are always our children and therefore, what’s theirs is ours.”</p><p>Ukyou walked around the counter to the fridge, stood under the security camera and called out. “Regular or lite beer?”</p><p>“Regular beer of course!” Saotome called out, turning toward the chef. “Why, do you know that the banks won’t even tell me if Ranma is a client there or not? The boy isn’t even doing the courtesy of informing me where the money is kept, much less give me access.”</p><p>“That doesn’t sound particularly unusual.” Tendou said in response. “Banks are responsible for protecting their clients’ privacy.”</p><p>“But I’m the client, aren’t I. It’s my money he’s putting in there after all.” </p><p>“I seriously think you might be mistaken on that, Saotome.”</p><p>“And that’s why it’s important Ranma and Akane get married as quickly as possible.”</p><p>“I’m sorry, what does that have to…”</p><p>“Kanpai!” Saotome shouted, tapping his can too Tendou’s before they both took a long drink. “I said, we should focus on what’s important, getting Ranma and Akane past this nonsense of dating and just get married. Before that crazy rich girl hooks him in…” he started to take another drink and then paused mouthing the word “rich” and mulling it over before drinking again.</p><p>“Kodachi seems like very nice young woman. Somewhat excitable.” Tendou said, shrugging.</p><p>Ukyou arched an eyebrow as they finished cooking their orders and set them out on a plate, turning toward the sound of the bell again and smiling as Konatsu came in. Keeping the smile on she flashed the sign “jackass” watching as Konatsu nodded and finger-spelt “Genma?” to which Ukyou nodded.</p><p>“Hey, can you take those groceries up and help the customers in the back?” Ukyou asked.</p><p>“Right away, dear.” Konatsu nodded and wondered why Ukyou wouldn’t want her keeping an eye on Genma. She figured it out quickly enough when she came to the table and saw the video feed on the laptop the cat-woman turned toward her. “Would you like any refills or another order of anything?”</p><p>“We’re fine thank you.” The woman said as the little girl signed at her. “Or apparently we want ice cream. If that’s available.”</p><p>“It is.” Konatsu assured them, signing to the little girl before going to get a carton of ice cream out of the freezer section of the cooler by the counter.</p><p>The next hour or so was spent splitting time between watching the two martial artists for signs of trouble and welcoming other customers as they came in, until finally the two mildly drunk martial artists started moving toward the door. Ukyou watched as Genma palmed his friend’s wallet and shook their head in disbelief. Then watched as the man in black started patting down his gi with a confused.</p><p>“Ahh, Saotome, I seem to have misplaced my wallet.”</p><p>“Ahh, never fear, Tendou for I have your back. I shall pay for today’s lunch.”</p><p>“Ahh, Saotome, you are truly a good friend forged in the fires of mutual adversity.” Tendou said, crying.</p><p>Ukyou took the wallet as Genma handed it over, removed the price of the food and beer, and then handed the wallet back to Tendou without breaking eye contact with Genma. “Here’s your wallet, sir. You must have dropped it.”</p><p>“Oh, thank you very much. That was excellent food.”</p><p>Genma blinked and leaned in with a bleary-eyed stare. “Do I know you? You have the look of someone I should know…kinda glaring.”</p><p>“And do they also call you jackass and ask you not to come back?”</p><p>“Hmm, come on, Tendou, maybe there’s a bar or two open somewhere.”</p><p>“I think I know of a place for that,” the other martial artist added. “I’ll lead the way.”</p><p>“And this time it’s your turn to buy!” Genma said, laughing as they left.</p><p>A little bit later, the tall cat woman and the little girl stepped up to the counter and handed over a card. “There’s the server for the off-site recordings. Your account and password are written on the back and if you want today’s sample recording, you should look for the file marked ‘fucking jackass.’ And thank you for giving Kitties Solutions your business.”</p><p>“No problem, sugar.” Ukyou said.</p><p>“Please come again.” Konatsu confirmed with a smile and a bow as the two left. “So that was the infamous Saotome Genma. Is he what you expected?”</p><p>“Small-time crook and leech.” Ukyou said. “Glad the camera came in when it did. Shopping go all right?”</p><p>Konatsu said. “The oni is the sister of one of the women from yesterday. And she had a couple of leads to follow including that club Shouganai.”</p><p>“Kind of a sign, but also they’re related, so makes sense they’d know the same places. Think we should stop by tomorrow in the morning before we open?”</p><p>“Maybe call ahead first, dear.” Konatsu said. “It is a nightclub after all.”</p>
<hr/><p>Konatsu's Change</p><p>Guest Written Scene by Branwen</p>
<hr/><p>Empty during the daytime, Shougani was peacefully dark and quiet. Carmilla stroked her pointed chin with black-clawed fingers as she considered her visitor’s request. Surveying the two restaurateurs with slitted red eyes, she took in their black hair and athletic physiques. Both were martial artists, though each had their own specialties. One sat cross-legged with folded arms, their enormous spatula leaning against a nearby table. The other was every inch the proper young Japanese lady on the surface, kimono and all, but her seated stance indicated that she was ready to react to threats faster than most beings could blink an eye.</p><p>“Allow me to repeat your request, Konatsu-san, to make sure I understand. You are looking for a method to change your sex to match your gender?” Carmilla asked.</p><p>“You are correct, Carmilla-sama,” Konatsu answered. “We were told you had some expertise. I have been on HRT but surgical procedures are imperfect and may hamper my fighting ability. On the other hand, magical procedures are perfect but every one I’ve encountered has drawbacks. I’ve met Ranma-san and their curse, though I would find it beneficial, is not what I truly need.”</p><p>Carmilla chuckled. “No, it’s doubtful that the curse of Jusenkyo would allow you to find the Nyannichuan. A little known fact about Jusenkyo is that the pools its victims tend to fall into reflect on who they are as a person. You’d be taking a needless risk.”</p><p>Konatsu breathed. “You know a lot about curses, Carmilla-sama.”</p><p>“Your problem happens to be my specialty. Let’s narrow the list down to options you may be comfortable with. First, let’s dismiss the idea of becoming indebted to a God or Goddess. You could pray to Kannon and hope that she answers you, but let’s see if you can help yourself first. The next on the list that I’ll dismiss is contacting aliens, they could do what you ask but they’re flighty and unpredictable.”</p><p>“We’d thrown out the idea of nanites as being too expensive,” Ukkyo grumbled.</p><p>“Indeed,” Carmilla agreed. “Far too messy. I refuse to facilitate the Tireseas method, I’m too fond of snakes to sacrifice a mating pair. Likewise any cruel or unusual methods. Like Jusenkyo, I’ll eliminate curses from the list as well. Even curses that seem like blessings tend to twist themselves into detrimental effects somehow, intention matters a lot in magic. That eliminates options like the Midnight Bliss technique or tracking down The Madonna.”</p><p>Carmilla closed her eyes to concentrate. “Body switching won’t cut it, you’d have to retrain yourself from the ground up. The local potion-makers like Urd tend to have too many mishaps, so we’d have to go further afield. The Kampfers would love to have you but you’d be beholden to their master’s stupid games. The Girdle of Masculinity/Femininity and SCP-113 have low chances of rendering you sexless, which makes them too risky to contemplate. Elminster is retired, I doubt I could get him to shift his lazy butt and give me his spell.”</p><p>“Then it’s hopeless? Every method is too dangerous?” Konatsu asked, dejected.</p><p>“Not so,” Carmilla reassured him with a smile. “I believe I have three good options for you now. First, I can get in contact with a friend of mine, Tedd Verres. They have many methods of reliable transformation at their disposal, though it may cost you a trip to Moperville in America’s northwest. The benefit to contacting Tedd would be the ability to tune your form if you have any features about yourself you’d like to tweak. You would have to talk to Tedd about their methods, their magitech has some issues with the laws of magic and natural magic resistance, it might require you to do some training.”</p><p>“Option two: The Elixir of Sex Changing,” Sara continued. “A magical potion produced on the world of Golarion in an alternate universe. The effect would be exactly what you describe, a simple physical change from male to female. It only works on willing people and will give you some minor ability to tweak your features until you are satisfied with your new form. It’s an instant effect, so it can’t simply be dispelled and it’s permanent. The bad news is, it costs roughly two thousand gold pieces at market price, or two hundred thousand dollars US. We can halve that price if we can learn to make it ourselves but a better bet would be trading goods for services. With your skills, finding a supplier with a job you can do fast should be a breeze.”</p><p>“Lastly, the fastest and least expensive option. I give my friend The Wotch a call and she pops over via teleport, casts her ka-girl spell on you, gives you a high five and pops out again. It won’t cost anything, she’s nice and you’d be doing her a favour.”</p><p>There was a long pause as Ukkyo and Konatsu stared at her. Suddenly, Ukkyo snapped and slammed their hands on the table. “What! Why wasn’t that your first choice? Why did you waste our time? It can’t be that easy, there has to be a catch!”</p><p>Konatsu graped her fiance’s wrist. “Darling, please calm down. I’m sure there’s a reason behind Carmilla-sama’s unreasonable behaviour.”</p><p>Carmilla snorted, still relaxed. “I went over all of that for three primary reasons,” she explained with the patience of a parent. “I know so many ways this can be done and I needed to sort through them and find the right options. I also wanted to gauge your reactions to see what level of risk you’d accept. Lastly, in my experience, people don’t tend to trust things given freely by strangers. For example…”</p><p>She paused to produce a round bottle filled with a swirling black and white liquid and placed it on the table. “This is an Elixir of Sex Changing that I made myself. I’m willing to give it to you as a wedding present.”</p><p>Both spouse’s eyes bugged out of their heads as Ukkyo flopped back into her seat. “That’s two hundred thousand dollars!”</p><p>Meanwhile, Konatsu’s hands were twitching on top of the table, slowly reaching for the elixir as she gazed at it longingly. The cure for her life-long struggle was so terribly, achingly, close and yet she didn’t feel like she could just reach out and take it.</p><p>“See?” Carmilla chuckled as she pushed the bottle within easy reach of Konatsu’s fingers. “I know exactly what you’re asking yourselves. Why would I give you a two hundred thousand dollar gift? What am I going to want from you in return? Will I ask for your blood, your body or your soul? Will the potion even work how I describe? It feels too easy, doesn’t it?”</p><p>Ukkyo sat up and looked at Carmilla, eyes narrow. She took her love’s hand in hers and squeezed it. “Carmilla-sama,” she addressed the woman, “businessperson to businesswoman, is the offer you made genuine? This is a proper, quality, product that will change Konatsu’s sex and you are offering it as a wedding gift?”</p><p>Carmilla smiled and nodded.</p><p>Ukkyo stood, retrieved her purse from her waistband and produced a business card. Standing, Carmilla did likewise. After going through the card-trading ritual, the two entered a series of rapid-fire negotiations. A supply of drinks was discussed for Ukkyo’s. A regular okonomiyaki night at Shouganai was suggested, complete with a cart in the middle of the floor. With a deal struck, the two hugged happily.</p><p>Ukkyo turned back to Konatsu and looked between their girlfriend and the elixir on the table. “What? It’s ok, Konatsu, you can take the elixir.”</p><p>Konatsu stood up, her face red. “But Ukkyo! You seemed so upset before! And now you and Carmilla-sama are friends? What happened?”</p><p>“Business,” Carmilla commented.</p><p>Ukkyo hugged their wife and kissed her on the cheek. “It’s ok, Konatsu darling, this is an introductory business gift and a wedding gift. This sort of thing is perfectly normal when you’re serious about joint ventures.”</p><p>After a moment, Konatsu snatched the bottle off the table, popped the cork and downed the entire contents in a single gulp. Smirking, Carmilla politely turned around.</p><p>“OW! OW! OW! OW!” Konatsu squealed.</p><p>“Darling! Did it work? Are you ok? Does it hurt?” Ukkyo shouted in a panic.</p><p>“It worked,” Konatsu squeaked. “Help… Bra… Too… Small…”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I was very close to having Ukyou aggressively confronting Ranma over this and again decided that wasn't the kind of story I was interested in. I also almost had Genma burst on the scene as a way to bring up the engagement, but eventually decided Ukyou just not bringing it up at all.</p><p>The talk about curses and sex-change alternatives replaced the talk of the engagement. My world setting of Divine Blood (both the fanfic and the original setting it spawned) has a couple of different rather reliable methods for changing a person's physical sex. This setting instead has dozens of individual methods for it and most of them are....problematic. This is because Divine Blood is based on the idea that powers are functions of natural laws, capable of being analyzed and repeated...while Late Start is based on Ranma 1/2 and my rule of "let's try to add a reference tag or two each chapter."</p><p>One thing that I thought of after this that didn't get put into the conversation is that so far Akane, Ranma, and Genma have failed to recognize that Kasumi is more than just a human with oni horns. Nabiki too, but despite being a vampire she doesn't have any training so that makes some sense. Xian Pu and Konatsu recognized it. I haven't shown whether Ryouga did or not. I think Ukyou might. And occurred to me that Akane, Ranma, and Genma all have curses, so maybe that gets in the way of recognizing things. (I do plan to address the curses somewhere down the line)</p><p>Pine Box, Texas refers to the setting of the Savage Worlds game: East Texas University. Go to YouTube Saving Throw Show's Wild Cards: ETU if you want experience a good run of the campaign (they did a four-season campaign) or Richard Rogers for the same setting in Monster of the Week. This world setting has a lot more friendly magic than ETU and the non-humans are mostly just people. However, the presence of Shadoloo, Umbrella, and such like that implies that the world at least brushes up against BAD STUFF occasionally. So even if the world tends toward the friendlier, there's nasties.</p><p>Aensland Ascendancy - aka that point in time at which Morrigan quit being a vagabond and did her actual job as a monarch of a major Makai nation. (Morrigan definitely has an on-going with Chun Li in this reality...maybe Ryu though he might be Ace now I think about...though Morrigan being the eagerest of blood knights means that her thing with Ryu, or Chun Li, could extend to "hey, let's fight for the fun of it")</p><p>While reading this, my friend Branwen expressed interest in writing the scene where Konatsu and Ukyou met Carmilla (her character) and I told her she can go ahead. As a note, as the potion in question does allow for tweaking, Konatsu will likely won't have to change out her wardrobe and the sizing issue was just initial issue. Yes, this solves Konatsu's problem almost immediately, but I'm cool with that. Light-hearted, fun, wish-fulfillment.</p><p>I am also going to re-iterate that my problem with Soun is that he's worthless and prone to taking Genma on face value entirely too easily. Genma is a not-too-bright small-time crook and also a disgusting abuser who thinks he's so much more clever than he really is.</p><p>Next definitely going to get some tournament fights in. Hokkaido, Okinawa, and Kyoto....not sure on the order. That video eventually gets to Kasumi. Then the party I've had the idea for for ages (which sadly might not include Ukyou and Konatsu because I'm not sure they'd enjoy the direction things go). </p><p>The bit with sign language was thought of when I had Konatsu come in after Ukyou had been listening to Genma and then I decided "let's back up a bit and establish the sign language before Genma shows up" Konatsu suggested a sign language makes sense because it is a very rogue/espionage/ninja thing and also Ukyou is very much about maximizing their business.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0014"><h2>14. Clear and Present Danger</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Starting Kyoto</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Usually, when I think of the traditional division fights, I tend to think of less gimmicky arenas.” Nabiki said as they came to the top of the mountain and looked over the site of the tournament and then up at the thick branches above them. “But at least the canopy keeps the sun out. Outdoor arenas don’t usually give me that comfort.”</p><p>“There are some really weird training grounds out there.” Ranma said. “Even ignoring the magical ones or cursed ones. This isn’t that far out.”</p><p>There were some stands set up, along the flat parts of the cliff, but the fighting area was stretched across the gap where two slopes held close together. Posts and platforms stretched across the whole thing, but there were multiple levels, and some of the posts looked as if they’d need to be replaced soon so there was a danger of their fighting surfaces dropping out from under them as well. The poles were much thicker than the rods that stick up out of the pools in Jusenkyo while also being much more numerous and tightly placed.</p><p>“Doesn’t this sort of arena present a difficulty for some styles?” Kodachi asked.</p><p>“Oh yeah, definitely. But that’s part of streetfighting. You’re not always going to get a good terrain. You’ve got to adapt.”</p><p>“I’ve had one or two arenas that weren’t very favorable to acrobatics or aerial maneuvers.” Ranma nodded as he agreed.</p><p>“Downside is that the pit doesn’t have the best view of the action this time.” Megu said, pointing out to where the wide platform upon which several streetfighters and their support were congregating. “We’re basically going to be watching the videos there.”</p><p>“I don’t know.” Silke said with a shrug. “With the camera coverage we might have better views than the stands. By the way, wasn’t Akari going to come?”</p><p>Akane shook her head. “Ryouga has a tournament in Hokkaido and Azusa decided that sounded like an excellent chance for training.”</p><p>“Xian Pu’s going to that tournament,” Nabiki said. “It’s next week.”</p><p>“Their plan is to get Ryouga a hotel he can stay for the week.” Akane said. “She and Azusa will come back down for classes and then…zip back up for the tournament. And hopefully he won’t get lost.”</p><p>“I wish them good luck.” Ranma said a moment before Akane elbowed him in the stomach.</p><p>“What have we got on the field?” Nabiki wondered as she walked toward the list of fighters. She stopped as she came to a particular name and style. “Oh boy. You guys might want to see this.”</p><p>“What?” Ranma asked. “Did a World Warrior stop by or something? Oh…great.”</p><p>“What’s up?” Akane looked and similarly grimaced.</p><p>Curious now, the others walked over and looked toward where Nabiki was pointing. Silke scratched at her ears and frowned. “Okay. Afu t'axie. Style, Joketsuzoku Wu Shu. What’s the problem?”</p><p>“Ahh, as I remember, that is Xian Pu’s home village. Am I correct there, darling?” Kodachi asked, looking toward Ranma.</p><p>“Yeah. That’s them.”</p><p>“You don’t think they’ll go into that whole Kiss of Death, Kiss of Marriage thing in a tournament. Do you?” Akane asked as Nabiki pulled her phone out to do a quick look.</p><p>“Kiss of death?” Megu asked.</p><p>“Kiss of marriage?” Silke repeated after.</p><p>“Okay, she hit rank 5 last year sometime and has been sort of clinging to it by the skin of her teeth since then.” Nabiki said. “Okay, so there’s this.”</p><p>She directed the phone toward Ranma and Akane, it showed the headline “A Gracious Loser” as a woman with lime green hair kissed another fighter on the cheek. Looking to the scenery, it looked like a tournament in India.</p><p>“That’s not a good sign.” Ranma said.</p><p>Nabiki turned her phone back to herself and did some more searching. “Worse is that her opponent in that photo has dropped off the map. I’m going to see what Xian Pu says.”</p><p>/Hey. Do you know an Afu t'axie?/</p><p>/What the hell is she doing out of the village? Why hasn’t she gotten herself killed? She hasn’t seen you has she?/</p><p>/She’s a participant at this tournament. And we think she’s carried out the kiss of death at least once./</p><p>/Yeah, I just googled her. She is hateful and doesn’t care much about hiding it./</p><p>/You have history?/</p><p>/She took part in my purification ceremony./</p><p>/What purification ceremony? You’ve never mentioned that before./</p><p>/Nevermind that. Remember my reaction when you changed? She will be so much worse./</p><p>/Just me or any denizen?/</p><p>/Are you with the wolf-godling and the mermaid? As long as they don’t poke her they shouldn’t have too much trouble./</p><p>“Xian Pu is pretty clear that this lady is bad news.”</p><p>“Perhaps we should warn some of the other participants of this…curious tradition.” Kodachi suggested.</p><p>“Yeah, I think we can get started on that.” Silke agreed, nodding. </p><p>“Technically, if she tries to do the Kiss of Marriage on Ranma we could mention he’s already married or engaged.” Akane said hesitantly. Before Nabiki could speak up though she continued. “Yeah, that throws Xian Pu under the bus, probably not the best idea.”</p><p>“We’ve got thirty minutes to opening ceremony.” Nabiki said. “Let’s get set-up and then…good luck Ranma.”</p><p>“Thanks.” He said, looking up toward the trees.</p>
<hr/><p>“Esteemed members of the audience!” the announcer called out. “We thank you for your patronage of the Kyoto Invitational Tournament and now, please respectfully welcome our fighters for this year’s event.”</p><p>“Afu t'axie, Joketsuzoku Wu Shu.” </p><p>The woman from the photo step out into the arena. Her lime green hair flowed behind her and she was dressed in a longer robe as adverse the silk tunic and breeches Xian Pu had always preferred in fighting. She glared out over the audience, keeping her arms crossed as she did so and huffing as she moved to her assigned position.</p><p>“She doesn’t even respect the event.” Someone whispered.</p><p>Ranma looked back to see another woman with a darker shade of green hair with a red headband and a clear uniform in tones of blue, white, and black. He nodded at her and shook his head in commiseration. </p><p>“Yeah. Keep an eye out on her.”</p><p>“You’re talking about the forum post that went up earlier?” the woman asked. “Rumors are problematic, but yeah I paid attention.”</p><p>“Saotome Ranma, Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu.”</p><p>“Speaking of groups with bad reputations.” The woman noted.</p><p>“Yeah. Well.” Ranma said, chuckling nervously. The woman blinked as he started to walk out onto the platform.</p><p>There was some polite applause scattered here and there with less approving sounds as Ranma walked out and bowed to the hosts, the judges, and then the audience. He tried to avoid reacting to the scattered boos. There was no benefit to throwing a tantrum or being seen to be affected by the attitude. The best he could do was just make himself an example of good respect.</p><p>He walked over to his position in the crowd of other fighters, noticing Afu t'axie staring at him but didn’t give any sign of acknowledgement.</p><p>“Makibi Kiyone, Galaxy Police Defense Training.”</p><p>That caught the Joketsuzoku woman’s attention and she was suddenly turning to look as the woman with dark green hair from earlier stepped out and saluted in her own styles before walking towards the mass of other fighters. The remainder of the ceremony, the woman split her time between glaring at Makibi or staring at Ranma. </p><p>For his part, Ranma focused on watching the priest and mikos from the Fushimi Inari shrine go about the ritual of blessing the event. But he didn’t blind himself to the woman. Something had piqued her interest in him, and he wondered whether it was his own name or the name of his school. Xian Pu had learned his name and might have passed it on. That seemed the most likely, from what he could tell, his father had never been in the region before their trip to Jusenkyo so a reputation based on the school felt unlikely. What her problem with Makibi was a complete mystery to him until the ceremony ended and Afu t'axie marched toward the judges.</p><p>“What is that thing doing in this tournament?”</p><p>“I am not sure what you mean, miss.” The first judge said. “What are you talking about?”</p><p>“The alien. This is a traditional division tournament, is it not? Alien and magical trickery belongs with the other freaks in freestyle division.”</p><p>The second judge grimaced and crossed their arms. “We can assure you that we have exhaustively vetted the extra-terrestrials that have joined the division. Miss Makibi has some minor genetic modifications to allow for better survival in space travel, but none of those affect her capabilities. The Avari are also quite analogous to human and it is perfectly acceptable for her to take part.”</p><p>Afu t'axie huffed twisted around on her heel. “You barbarians have no sense of what is proper, do you?”</p><p>“You're vocal on what’s ‘proper’ for someone who has behaved as you have so far.”</p><p>“Oh, you want to say I am the one in the wrong. Well, you’re going to be giving me the title of this pathetic gathering eventually. So, we’ll see who’s opinion is right.”</p><p>The woman turned on her heels and walked toward the waiting area. As she walked, she passed by Ranma and slowed down, looking him up and down. “Did you have a sister?”</p><p>“Not that I know of.” Ranma said.</p><p>“Hmmm, maybe the elders’ favorite actually accomplished something then.” She then ignored him and continued on. Ranma held back a moment, shaking his head.</p><p>“This is going to be so fun.”</p>
<hr/><p>“What is she complaining about?” Megu wondered. The cameras focused on on Afu t'axie’s abortive argument with the judges and brief interaction with Ranma.  </p><p>Nabiki looked about the waiting area before walking up to Megu and Silke and glanced towards the first fighters coming back into the area.</p><p>“I’m going to get out of sight.” Nabiki said. “I’ll slip out once she gets in here and just merge with the other photographers.”</p><p>They nodded and Nabiki slipped into a dark corner and pressed herself back as far as she could. Akane looked over and saw Nabiki’s phone sitting on one of the trunks. Sighing she reached over to grab it.</p><p>“Hey, can you guys handle this?”</p><p>“We’re fine here.” Silke said.</p><p>“And if there is any trouble from certain quarters I did come with some measure of preparation.” Kodachi assured Akane.</p><p>The Tendou woman nodded and walked over to where Nabiki was staying out of sight.</p><p>“I’m trying not to attract attention, sis.” The vampire said.</p><p>“You forgot your phone.”</p><p>“Oh, damn it. Yeah, thanks for that.”</p><p>“Do you want someone else to do the photos for you? You could head back to the hotel.”</p><p>Nabiki became still for a moment but then dramatically rolled her eyes. “Are you kidding? I should trust one of you for that? Besides, if I’m out of their while she’s in here between matches, it’ll be easier to avoid her than hanging out in the pit.”</p><p>“If you’re sure.” Akane said. “Because I think Kodachi can get most of the places you can.”</p><p>“Yeah, probably.” Nabiki agreed, slowly releasing a breath. “Fuck…if she faces Ranma she’ll follow us back anyway.”</p><p>Akane took a deep breath. “Can you ask her what she thinks about us pulling out of this tournament?”</p><p>“Just a second.” Nabiki said. A couple of moments later she grimaced and turned her phone screen toward Akane.</p><p>/DON’T YOU FUCKING DARE PULL OUT OF A TOURNAMENT OVER ME!/ </p><p>/BEAT HER FACE IN!/</p><p>“I think that’s a…” Akane paused as she scanned further up the conversation and saw something, then continued. “Okay, that’s pretty clear. But, about you going to hotel?”</p><p>“Yeah, it minimizes risk.” She handed over the camera to Akane. “Maybe she'll get something marketable…”</p><p>As they talked, the Joketsuzoku woman appeared at the top of the stairs and Nabiki pressed back into a corner. The green-haired woman paused as she saw Megu and Silke going over the supplies and organizing the things that shifted positions during the trip. The woman looked around at the other contestants and their crews then she moved back to the waiting area and put her back to a wall. It didn’t take long for the remaining participants including Ranma to come down into the waiting area.</p><p>He walked down to stand by where Megu, Silke, and Kodachi were finishing up organizing things. He leaned down to give Kodachi a kiss on the cheek which she leaned up into.</p><p>“Nabiki is staying out of sight.” Kodachi explained pointedly not looking towards the Joketsuzoku.</p><p>“Ahhh, got it.”</p><p>Akane walked over and leaned to kiss Ranma on the cheek and then Kodachi before handing the camera over to the gymnast. “I’m going to walk Nabiki back to the hotel as soon as the problem has her first fight. So, I guess Kodachi is the photographer today. If you’re okay with that?”</p><p>“I’m mostly familiar with surveillance photography,” Kodachi said. “But I’ll try.”</p><p>“She definitely recognized my name, by the way.” Ranma said. “She asked if I had a sister.”</p><p>“Great.”</p><p>Ranma remained silent for a moment, a thoughtful expression on his face. “Should I…”</p><p>“We already asked Xian Pu about backing out of the tournament on her behalf. She used capslock.”</p><p>“Okay. Well, I guess she’s a martial artist as well. So that makes sense.”</p><p>Afu t'axie’s first fight was the third on the docket and the woman strode past them, eyeing them with clear distaste before heading on up the stairs. They turned to look at the monitor and waited for the fight to begin before Akane gestured for Nabiki to come over.</p><p>“Good luck, Ranma.”</p><p>The two sisters moved up the stairs and started working their way out of the venue and back onto the path that they had walked up to get there. Akane waited until there was nobody around them before turning to her sister.</p><p>“I saw something when you showed me Xian Pu’s response. Something about her reaction to your change?”</p><p>Nabiki stopped, breath and heartbeat both ceased for a couple of seconds. It was always an eerie feeling when that happened, and always meant that Nabiki was having a little bit of discomfort with the situation.</p><p>“Did Xian Pu do something to you?”</p><p>“There was a rough patch at the beginning when I changed. She was there.”</p><p>“So that’s where you went on ‘vacation’ for two weeks before telling us?”</p><p>“Well, not the whole time…” Nabiki said.</p>
<hr/><p>“There’s something off about the smell of this wine.” Xian Pu said as she looked at it in her glass.</p><p>“It’s probably been ruined or something.” Nabiki said. “You know all these old wines that collectors keep around. Something goes wrong with a refrigeration unit and suddenly it’s all vinegar.”</p><p>“And you want to actually drink it?” The other woman gave her an incredulous look.</p><p>“I’m going to respect the fact that my father got me a gift that probably took some doing.”</p><p>Xian Pu shrugged and continued to look at her glass doubtfully as Nabiki finished pouring her own. She took a sniff and couldn’t tell what it is that gave Xian Pu pause. Well, there was an odd smell to it under the familiar smell of fermented grapes. It was also a deeper red than she was accustomed to with wines. She’d never gotten too much into the whole deal of wine tasting and the like, but she was curious what they had done to get that effect.</p><p>Beside her, Xian Pu’s eyes narrowed and she started leaning in to look closely at the glass in her hand. Nabiki shrugged and closed her eyes, starting to drink her own. It went down her throat cool, thick, and burning, but then something struck her hand and the rest of the glass went flying into the wall, spraying the wine across the wall.</p><p>“Why the hell did you do that?” Nabiki demanded, turning to Xian Pu.</p><p>“Did you drink any?” </p><p>“What? What? What’s wrong with you, Xian Pu?”</p><p>Xian Pu grabbed her and dragged her over to where the wine had splattered across the wall and pointed at it. “Look! The wine was an illusion, look what it really is.”</p><p>“What are you…” Nabiki stopped and her eyes started going wide as she saw the viscous liquid slowly oozing down the wall as a smell started to fill the room. “Blood…that’s blood. It’s not ‘blood wine’ it’s blood.”</p><p>Xian Pu turned her about and looked at her. “Did you drink any?”</p><p>Nabiki shook her head clear and rushed to the table to grab the bottle. Half-way there she felt her stomach cramp up and a chill start to work outward from it. She grabbed up the bottle and made for the kitchen. Another burst of pain caused her to stumble as Xian Pu watched.</p><p>“No. No.”</p><p>The pain was coming in rapid spikes, working jaggedly through her by the time she reached the kitchen and smashed the bottle into the sink. Suddenly, Xian Pu was at her side, pressing fingers into what she assumed were pressure points.</p><p>The woman was speaking in high speed Cantonese, too fast and too complicated for Nabiki to tell much of what she was saying. The pain didn’t help, it was hard to concentrate on anything as the spikes had reached her legs and shoulders and were working their way up her neck.</p><p>“What…what’s happening?” Nabiki asked.</p><p>“Don’t die! Whatever you do, don’t die!” Xian Pu shouted in Japanese, still trying to use acupuncture to shut down the poison flooding Nabiki’s convulsing body.</p><p>Then everything stopped. The pain. Her breath. Her heart. Her body. She could still hear and see. She could feel it as Xian Pu shook her and laid her out on the kitchen floor. The Joketsuzoku woman stood up over her, shaking as well before looking around the kitchen and then walking quickly out of it. Nabiki felt her heart beat once and then again a long second later. A moment later she felt her finger twitch and she became aware of a plethora of overwhelming smells. She flicked her eyes about as feeling started to come into her body again and she felt cold.</p><p>Desperately, she’d tried to pull in a breath and suddenly everything was under her control. She sat up and pressed herself against the cabinet drawer, looking at her suddenly too-pale skin and turned up to see Xian Pu coming into the room with a wooden spike in her hand that may have been a piece of fire-wood before.</p><p>“What happened to me? What is that?”</p><p>“I’m…I’m sorry, Nabiki.” Xian Pu said, shaking. “I’m…”</p><p>The woman reared back clearly planning to stab the spike of wood into her, when a mass of black hair erupted out of the ceiling and grabbed her arms, pulling her up to the ceiling. </p><p>“No, Kayako! Stop, you don’t understand!”</p><p>Nabiki stared and made a panicked climb to her feet before rushing out, feeling faster than she’d ever had before. The next week was bad and existed in a blur. She remembered finding Shouganai by following some smells and getting some diet suggestions. But details of that week were...vague. There was a number of receipts and lost money that told her she’d stayed at hotels and bought her first bottles of pig blood, but still it was a blur. Her next firm memory was at a market after a week of no contact with anybody and eyes fixating the cloves of garlic. </p><p>The migraine started as she approached it and her hand almost immediately bruised as she took hold of it, but none of the other customers seemed to notice as she raised it to her mouth. Except one. The clove was pulled out of her hand and set back on the market stall as she was pulled away.</p><p>“Stop eating things that are bad for you.” Xian Pu shouted before hugging her. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I didn’t understand.”</p><p>Nabiki accepted the hug slowly and leaned forward, noting the other woman not even flinching as her face came close to the other’s throat. “Why?”</p><p>“It doesn’t matter why. I should have known better.”</p><p>And from there things were clearer and Nabiki stopped avoiding people she knew.</p>
<hr/><p>“Anyway, that’s between me and her and we’ve gotten past it.”</p><p>“You’re fine with Xian Pu?”</p><p>“Oh my god. Yes. You’ve seen her in protective mode. She’s fine. Xian Pu is great. And to be honest, I’d probably be dead if it weren’t for her.” And, as she thought about, the garlic thing at work may have had Xian Pu worried she was doing it to herself. Oops, will have to talk that out with her.</p><p>Akane looked at her as they walked and then nodded. “So, what’s your plan for this?”</p><p>“I’ll probably watch the tournament on my phone.” Nabiki said. “Maybe catch some let’s plays. Kikoskia started a Neverwinter Nights 2 let’s play.”</p><p>“Isn’t that the game you bought in Korean by accident a while back?” Akane smirked and held back a giggle.</p><p>“No, that was the first one…” Nabiki said with a sigh and roll of her eyes.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>So, I don't really have a plan or outline for this fic, I'm just sort of writing as I go. This is true of a lot of my fics. I've read critiques of some of my other fics, such as Divine Blood, that point out that a lot of my stuff has rough starts or inconsistent feels and the like, and yeah, especially when I'm writing for fun, but in a lot of cases all of my writing, I tend to write according to my mood at the time. So sometimes, I bleed more on the story than on other days. Also, I get into situations where because I want to write out X conversational bit, I have to delay action bits a little more. In all honesty, I'm not a very structured writer and it does tend to show in my works. With original works I tend to go over them more times and end up going through multiple variations of the same structure. I also tend to actually outline stuff that I'm working toward publishing, but since my for-fun writing doesn't do that too much my prep/outlining skills are not my best.</p><p>I have to be honest and say I am someone that enjoys visual fight choreography more than narrative fight choreography. I enjoy clever uses of power and cool effects, but often feel my fight scenes tend to boil down to a mechanical description with a bit of the flair of what I'd want to see in a manga page or animated sequence. That's here and there interrupted by me peeking in at characters' mental states in the midst of a fight, which is where I tend to go a bit more ham and descriptive. Though I get fed up with people being highly distracted and having philosophical theses being written in their heads mid-fight, so a lot of what I show mentally is subconscious or observations of the narrator rather than their literal thoughts.</p><p>I wrote and re-wrote a couple of the bits of this several times and hopefully I caught all the relics of earlier versions. Earlier versions included Akane seeing the conversation when she picked up the phone and Nabiki being far more rattled than she is here and slipping in conversation. The flashback scene ending the way it did put the bit with the nighclub in a starker context than I expected, so I added a small comment in regards to that.</p><p>Regarding Kikoskia, Neverwinter Nights 2 is one of the games I've been hoping he'll eventually do but to date he hasn't. He does tend to get swarmed with people giving him suggestions, so I generally avoid bringing it up unless the topic occurs, and mostly keep it tongue in cheek. But I figure I've been cameoing some friends, might as well cameo him as well. Besides, watching a Kiko let's play would be good practice for English usage understanding and let's assume that in this reality, someone has added Japanese subtitles to his vids.</p><p>A while back, I took to calling Kiyone's species "Moriquendi" which was the term Noldor used to describe the elves that never went west in Tolkien's Middle Earth. At the time I hadn't read the Silmarillion more than once, so the implications behind the term weren't clear to me. There is a trend in Tolkien's Middle Earth of things that show up when a great society starts to go into decline. Arrogance and racism are two things that start to grow rampant when one of Tolkien's societies is getting closer to collapse, along with jingoism and nationalism. "Moriquendi" means "dark people" or "people of the dark" and was imposed by the Noldor on the Nandor, Sindar, and Avari. The Sindar immediately protested that they were lumped in with those groups and they had the power to back that up. Even the Nandor (who would become the Silvan elves of Lorien and Mirkwood) eventually pushed off the term, so this term imposed by foreign elves that nobody wanted effectively only covered the Avari (who we never really see in any of the stories, they are WAY far East), mostly because they weren't around to protest. This may be a bit "virtue signalling" (which I think feels more like is a term thrown about to make people shut up about pointing out bad things and let them hide under rocks festering) but I'm not comfortable officially naming a species by a term that the original author created as a foreign label of inferiority and demonstration of a culture's level of arrogance. So, instead, I called the species Avari.</p><p>Is Kiyone's species literally the Avari of Middle Earth? I don't know...maybe when Eru reshaped Arda that included shifting the one realm into many planets. And maybe the Avari eventually became more like the Secondborn (Men) or heck, they could even still be Firstborn (elves). Who knows how long Kiyone's natural lifespan is?</p><p>Afu t'axie = After Shave (I just was looking for a Joketsuzoku name that wasn't "Lotion" or "Perfume".)</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0015"><h2>15. Let's Fight</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>A little cheating never hurt anybody, oh wait...that's wrong.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Welllllcome back folks to Let’s Play Neverwinter Nights 2, and when laaaassst we left, we made our character and spoke to our step-father who seems like an elf but may actually be a Vulcan, or he may just have a perpetual headache. The voice acting makes it a bit hard to tell. Regardless, we have a Harvest Fair to get to and there will surely be no shenanigans of any sort going on.”</p><p>Nabiki paused the video as it started and turned to her text messages and sent a message to Silke.</p><p>/Akane’s on her way back. What were the results of the first round?/</p><p>/Ranma got through his fight pretty quickly. Unfortunately, so did the Joketsuzoku./</p><p>She nodded.</p><p>/Right, that makes sense. Are the round two match-ups in yet?/</p><p>/Not yet. We’ll tell you when they’re up./</p><p>/Thanks./ </p><p>She walked to the hotel room’s kitchen and pulled out a small can marked with a rabbit. There weren’t any large-scale operations canning or bottling blood for vampires. She used to get just Styrofoam cups with plastic lids from the butcher but those didn’t travel well. Or keep well for that matter. At some point Kasumi had floated the idea of a canning machine toward Nabiki’s butcher and his farmer contracts and they did a bit of research into anti-coagulants. Hence, canned rabbit blood that didn’t turn into sludge in a couple of hours. A new luxury that dated to perhaps a week before Ranma showed up.</p><p>She sat down at the hotel desk and hooked her phone up to the hotel TV and setting it to display from her phone and letting the video start up again as she popped open her can of blood and sipped it. Then she set about to watch Kikoskia go through the harvest tutorial while she tried not to be stressed out about her friends and family up the mountain a couple of kilometers away. Kikoskia was in the middle of apologizing to a hapless pig when she was alerted to a new text message, causing the video to automatically pause.</p><p>It was Silke again.</p><p>/Round two match-ups are posted./</p><p>At the tournament Silke turned to snap a picture of the match-ups and sent them over. Ranma was reading the third match-up down and considering what was coming up as Kodachi walked up to him with Nabiki’s camera in her hand. She angled the screen for Ranma to look and flipped through several photos of Afu t’axie’s match from earlier. She pointed out on photo where the woman’s arm was a veritable blur.</p><p>“Her hand speed is incredibly fast, darling, but the style overall seems to lean toward strength and endurance.”</p><p>Ranma looked down and nodded. “X…Nabiki’s friend is like that too. Just more weapons-oriented.” </p><p>“How’d you beat her?”</p><p>“Looking back? She treated me like a nobody and relaxed her guard. I won basically by ring out in one blow.”</p><p>“You do have an advantage over her in that you’ve seen her style of fighting multiple times and she may have seen half a second of yours. Some years ago.”</p><p>“Would have been nice to have a couple more rounds to see more tricks.” Ranma said. “Her match lasted what, thirty-five seconds?”</p><p>She nodded. “Yes.”</p><p>“That’s a weirdly short statement for you, Kodachi. Are you okay?”</p><p>Kodachi paused, took a deep breath, set down the camera, and then released it in a rush of words barely kept under her breath. “I have several options for a…proactive…defense that could be made use of. I’ve had a lot of time and so been able to reproduce certain chemical…deterrents that I’ve used in the past to exceptional effect. Given her attitudes towards our denizen friends I imagine she has human physiology and thus is quite vulnerable to pretty much the entirety of my particular skillset. I could…” Kodachi paused, clearing her throat, and looked at Ranma, slowing her breathing. “Kodachi, no?”</p><p>Ranma looked toward Afu T’axie and then back at Kodachi. “I think this qualifies as ‘Kodachi, maybe.’ And not in the tournament.”</p><p>“It is a dangerous classification,” Kodachi said, keeping her speech slow. “But I shall try to keep it on the sideboard for now. If she hurts one of us. I will destroy her in ways she cannot comprehend.”</p><p>Ranma hugged her until her breath and heart hit a more comfortable speed and the gymnast pulled her arms up to tap his chest, signaling for him she was ready to disengage. </p><p>“Thank you.” She straightened her clothes out and shook her head once. “My statement stands.”</p><p>“The feeling is mutual.”</p><p>Behind them, Megu held her first aid to hand while the first fight called up and the introduction was made over the speakers. Silke was trying not to be seen watching Ranma’s upcoming opponent while continuing to text Nabiki on her phone. </p><p>The activity was not lost on Afu T’axie and she smiled to see them taking her seriously. Standing up she stretched and walked out to the center of the waiting area, eyeing the screens as the first fight progressed between Makibi Kiyone and Capoeira fighter. She smiled again and turned toward the group, pointing over her shoulder.</p><p>“Two fights to go until we meet in the arena.” She said. “And look at all your preparations. Your bandages. Comforting your weakling concubine. Spying on me. I think you do know what it means to face the Nuchiezu. Maybe you should just leave like a good little barbarian. You don’t seem cut out as a warrior.”</p><p>Kodachi looked her up and down and arched an eyebrow and turned to Ranma. “On the other hand, her monologuing skills are entirely lacking.”</p><p>The woman scoffed and stomped toward the steps to wait for the fight to be called. She was there when Akane started walking down the steps. She glanced toward the youngest Tendou once and then again, eyes widening and drifting up toward the bluish hair, though the shape of her face wasn’t quite right. </p><p>“Are you from the village?” She asked in Cantonese.</p><p>Akane looked at her a moment, eyes narrowed. After a moment, Afu T’axie saw an arc of electricity appear and travel down her shoulder. The sight caused her lip to curl up slightly in a sneer that Akane reacted to by flattening her mouth into a frown.</p><p>“I don’t speak Chinese. Excuse me.”</p><p>The woman watched Akane walk over to Ranma and kiss him lightly on the lips. The sneer turned into a smug grin for a moment as she played out the sordid affair going on there. Then Akane hugged and kissed the skinny Japanese woman with the rude mouth. There was a gap where her mind tried to understand what she’d seen but found all the concepts that would guide her had been systemically broken down and destroyed. Unable to complete, her train of thought derailed into debased and perverse areas and the smug superiority disintegrated into revulsion.</p><p>The first fight came to an end as Kiyone ducked under a kick, dropping to a lower platform and grabbing her opponent’s hands as he flipped over her and redirecting the momentum downward to slam into the platform she’d retreated to, stunning him long enough for her to place him into a submission hold.</p><p>“She’s used to fighting people stronger and faster than her,” Akane said, pointing to the screen before then looking across to the Chinese fighter. “Problem for later.”</p><p>Ranma nodded, looking toward her. “She’s probably looking to just bury me given the look she’s giving us.”</p><p>The second fight was a practitioner of dambe against a karateka. Ranma turned away from the Nuchiezu and up toward the monitors to watch the fight. Kodachi stayed focused on the next opponent and saw the scoffing as Ranma made ready to study opponents for possible future fights. Neither of the opponents found the poles and unstable platforms favored them and their match proved brutal for that fact alone even without taking their styles into consideration.  It ended with a knockout blow to the karateka’s head and the applause of the watching crowd.</p><p>On the monitors the karateka was woken up and managed to bow to his opponent and walk off under his own power, but Ranma had turned to look at Afu T’axie. The dambe martial artist came down the stairs and made his way to the medic provided by the arena for those without their own support staff. Briefly she walked between the two fighters that were going next, but they didn’t seem to notice it much. Beside Ranma, Kodachi and Akane also stared while Silke and Megu watched behind nervously.</p><p>“Saotome Ranma and Afu T’axie of the Joketsuzoku to the arena please.”</p><p>Ranma kissed Kodachi and Akane and stepped forward, the Chinese woman was waiting for him and only turned to go up the steps as he reached them. She turned toward him. “I am going to end your disgusting existence.”</p><p>“This is a tournament. Let’s keep things civil and we can both just part ways after its done.”</p><p>“Civil.” The woman scoffed and stalked off towards her starting mark leaving Ranma to reach his own.</p><p>The platforms that stretched across some of the poles had a tendency to fall at times, especially with the styles that had a heavier tread than others, but there was a measure of repair done between matches. This mostly consisted of putting out replacement platforms though not necessarily in the same place as the one that had broken. They wouldn’t clear out the broken remains of platforms until the end of the round, so there was a lot of sharp, splintered, shafts of wood wedged in between some of the tightly packed poles.</p><p>Ranma hopped out to the one pole with its top painted red while Afu T’axie jumped atop another painted black. He bowed to the judges, the audience, and then Afu T’axie who simply stood and waited. Kodachi appeared with the camera and found a perch in the trees outside of the bounds of the arena. Above them, the clouds started to gather, increasing the shadows of the forest canopy above them. At the central judges’ table a man stepped forward and raised his arm.</p><p>“Begin!”</p><p>Waiting for the opponent to come to him was nothing new to Ranma and Afu T’axie certainly fit in with the mold of aggressive attackers he’d been used to dealing with. He timed her leap and leaped back clipping her chin with his heel and landing on another pole. The woman landed, rubbing her jaw and shifted into a kick into the pole as Ranma landed. The platform shattered forcing Ranma to quickly choose a new landing point, so he reached out and planted his hand on the top of her head and pushed off just ahead of her attempt to grab at his hand.</p><p>She spat something in Cantonese before lashing out with a backfist. Ranma caught the strike on a block, wincing and letting the force carry him across the arena. He twisted about and landed sideways on another pole and pushed out at an angle to land up on one of the platforms, followed a moment later by the Nuchiezu woman. He took the slight advantage he had of arriving first by spinning a kick into her head again. It was a solid connection, and she stumbled to the side momentarily, but didn’t have much more impact than that. She recovered quickly and lashed out with a spearhand aimed for his throat. He barely avoided it with a combination of a block and side-step and felt the bruise forming down to his bone.</p><p>He returned with a knuckle strike between her eyes she stumbled back again but shook off the impact in time to block the follow up strike. She planted her feet on the ground, and he took a half step away from her. It was good that he had because what followed was a thing he’d rarely been on the receiving end of, a barrage of strikes that were coming so fast that he would have assumed they were a single strike if he hadn’t been forewarned by Kodachi and his own observations. The half-step back kept the blows comparatively light, but his ribs were at least rattled by one of the blows if not worse.</p><p>Afu T’axie smiled viciously as she twisted into a roundhouse kick which Ranma ducked under, rolling past and sweeping back into the Nuchiezu woman’s leg. Her eyes went wide as she found herself in the air outside her own power. Then Ranma’s rose up and rotated his foot into an axe kick slamming into her abdomen. Her back slammed into the wooden platform and she crashed through it, falling several meters before catching herself between the poles. Ranma was distracted from following her down, by avoiding the collapse of the platform himself, but leaped to land on another pole, separated from Afu T’axie by a small wall of other tightly packed poles.</p><p>Ranma rotated his arm and felt his chest, there didn’t seem to be any fracture there. The individual blows were fast, but the set-up of the attack was a bit slow. Like it was a recent technique that she hadn’t completely assimilated yet. He’d need to disrupt her before she could pull it off. He sighed and shook his head.</p><p>“I was going to save that.”</p><p>One of the poles beside him exploded into a hail of splinters and he reached up to cover his eyes as his opponent plowed through and punched him in the solar plexus, sending him flying upward. He broke through the corner of another platform and caught his breath back while in the air above the arena and managed to twist his body about to regain control of his trajectory in time to land on a pole.</p><p>Below him, the Nuchiezu pulled herself up out of the pole forest and landed nearby, planting her feet on two separate poles overlooking Ranma. He recognized the stance again as she took it, but before the barrage could come the woman knee buckled. She slipped almost falling and then her head snapped back violently. She lost her balance and stumbled back off the pole landing roughly on the first and then crashing back to the remains of the platform Ranma had been punched through.</p>
<hr/><p>“What was that?” Silke asked.</p><p>“Oh, you sneaky…” Akane said, shaking her head. “How long has he been practicing that?”</p><p>“What, that was something Ranma did? Is he telekinetic?”</p><p>“Oh, a Musabetsu fighter cheating, what a surprise.” Someone said blandly.</p><p>“Wait for them to play back the footage.” Akane insisted sharply.  </p><p>Gesturing as the screen shifted to a picture in picture with the fighters maneuvering in one screen and a focus in on the previous exchange slowed down almost to frame by frame. The slowed image showed Ranma’s hand snapping out in line to Afu T’axie’s knee and then again to her head.</p><p>“That…” Akane pointed to the video with a big smile. “…is meant for me.”</p><p>“What?” Megu asked, confused.</p><p>Akane held up her hand and let the electricity show over it. “I’m electrified. That move is a countermeasure for the next time he and I have a match.”</p><p>“What, move so fast that the current can’t connect?” Kiyone asked incredulously.</p><p>"And I know exactly who's helping him train too."</p>
<hr/><p>“Well, that is a surprise that has been well and thoroughly ruined.” Kodachi said with a sigh as she took another photo. </p><p>Afu T’axie staggered to her feet, shaking her head and steadying her knee. There was a moment of relief when she realized it wasn’t broken. Her stance had given before the joint did. The aftershock of that moment of relief sent a chill down her spine as she spun away from the axe-kick Ranma landed with, blocking it and trying to regain her footing, physical or otherwise. The fact that she was now in boxing range came to her a moment later when a single high-speed strike slammed into her lower ribs followed by a second one to her jaw.</p><p>She jumped into the momentum of the strike and back-flipped away from her opponent. She’d felt that. Through the Bakusai Tenketsu, she’d felt that.</p><p>“You dare steal Nuchiezu’s techniques? This…bastardized Amaguriken will not stand.”</p><p>“The what?” Ranma paused a moment and looked at her. “Wait. Do you think that Joketsuzoku is the only school that teaches hand-speed techniques?”</p><p>The woman snarled and stepped forward, lashing out with a kick at Ranma’s head. He reached up to block it and the moment Afu T’axie felt her foot contact his hand she pulled it back and swept low with her other leg. Ranma flipped over it, landing behind her. She rose up with another spear hand strike that sliced into his side and sprayed blood over the platform.</p><p>The sight of the spray took hold Afu T’axie’s attention. Her victorious smile lasted until she’d realized that her opponent hadn’t fallen, and her back was to him. Before she could address the error, her legs were once again swept out from under her. Then her face slammed into the platform beneath her followed by three swift blows to her shin, shoulder and then the back of her head. </p><p>Angrily, Afu T’axie struck the platform which exploded underneath her. Ranma flew back into a pole, grimacing and bouncing into a second before catching hold of the top of a third pole and pulling himself up top of it. The Nuchiezu woman, meanwhile found herself dropping down into the space below the arena, slamming into another pole, sending her twisting uncontrolled into another before finding herself in a fall through a rare open space in the poles and slamming into the ground below at the base of the arena.</p><p>Ranma stood on the pole looking down waiting and watching where the woman had fallen before calling out. “I don’t think she’s moving down there.”</p><p>It was a minute before a medic reached the base of the poles and signaled up that she was unconscious. The judges nodded and announced his victory. He grimaced and hopped down to the platform. The tension was not yet gone as he held his side and started to bow to the judges and the audience. </p><p>“Miss! You need to be checked out!”</p><p>Still holding his side, Ranma turned around to see Afu T’axie glaring at him in disgust as she started to stumble towards him. He started to get into stance and then felt the light sprinkling of rain cascading over him. Ranma’s body shrank, anatomy shifted, and hair changed color. The already present tension ramped up as the Chinese woman paused and her eyes widened at the now physically female martial artist.</p><p>“That…thing…should be disqualified!” she demanded, turning about to face the judges. “You have no possible way to excuse…that!”</p><p>There was a moment of shuffling of papers before one of the judge’s looked up. “This curse has been registered and investigated in the past. Saotome is barred from deliberately using it to his advantage but throughout your entire match it was never triggered once so it had no bearing on the result.”</p><p>“Check the replay. It cheated. It had to have cheated. I demand you use your records to watch.”</p><p>The judge glared at her and frowned. “Fine, if you will give us a moment.”</p><p>Ranma held his stance in readiness. The change had healed the slash on her side somewhat, but he still felt some blood flowing out of it. The Nuchiezu woman was still far more unsteady, but he could see her recovering as things continued. On the monitors, the fight was being replayed while another camera focused on them in another frame. Eventually, the replay split into two frames showing two different moments. The Nuchiezu woman smiled again as she looked away from the monitor back to Ranma.</p><p>“They found something.”</p><p>“Yeah,” Ranma said. “They did.” The redhead gestured up toward the monitor where the scene was zoomed in on Afu T’axie stabbing a single finger into first the poles that had exploded and then the platform.<br/>
One of the judges stepped out in front of the table and took the microphone. “Contestant Afu T’axie has been disqualified for use of an illegal technique.”</p><p>“What?!” she demanded. “You fucking barbarians are disqualifying me?!” </p><p>She switched to a stream of angry Cantonese as she approached Ranma and the judges table leaping into an attack. She didn’t get far. Her body was limned in a purplish light as she slowed down almost freezing in mid-air. A moment later her body loosened, and she collapsed to the ground asleep.</p><p>Kodachi leaped down from the branches and moved to Ranma’s side, slipping a black rose into her pocket as she did so.</p><p>“Thank you, Miss Guillén.” The oldest judge, a shorter man with a sharp beard, said. </p><p>“Hey, if I’m going to be here I might as well help, right?” The speaker’s Puerto Rican accent slipped through into her Japanese as she shrugged and adjusted the bandana around her mane of curly black hair. “Sorry I didn’t see it coming.”</p><p>“To be fair, we hired you for your VR skills more than precognition, sometimes a person likes to be surprised.”</p><p>“Hmmm. That’s fair, Mr. Miyagi.” She nodded.</p><p>Ranma pointed at her as Kodachi walked the red-head past. “Aren’t you a superhero?”</p><p>“Come along now, darling. We need to have Megu look at that slash. I’m sure they can handle that…person from here.”</p><p>“She’ll be held in custody for the attempted assault at least.” Miyagi said. “And we’ll be looking into her past tournaments.”</p><p>“No seriously, I think she saved the world once.” Ranma said to Kodachi. “Uh…uh…Oya? Right?”</p>
<hr/><p>Akane looked at Ranma as Megu worked on wrapping his abdomen to hold the bandage down over the cut. Kodachi sat nearby and both were sort of looking sheepishly at anyone but Akane.</p><p>“So how long have you been sitting on that technique?” she asked. She was trying and failing to keep a severe expression, every so often cracking into a smile. “Couldn’t have been long and just when were you going to spring that on me?”</p><p>“Maybe when the technique was finished.” Ranma said.</p><p>“Oh, that looked pretty fast. Are you sure it’s not finished?”</p>
<hr/><p>A large steel sheet bedecked in various dents and flanked by two car batteries leaned against a wall. </p><p>“I think I got it that time.”</p><p>“I…am fairly certain that you did not, darling. I think you may have simply temporarily numbed your nerves and that we may need to take a break.”</p><p>“Are you sure?”</p><p>Kodachi walked over and stared down at where Ranma was lying in a silhouette that had been charred into the dirt.</p><p>“I am fairly certain. Yes.”</p>
<hr/><p>“It was three hours before I could feel my fingers.” Ranma grumbled as Megu finished the bandage and flopped back onto the floor.</p><p>“That was Monday.” Kodachi explained.</p><p>“That explains the poufy hair. Was that all you two did on your date?”</p><p>“Oh, certainly not. We went to a delightful noh play and….” Kodachi paused, her eyes widened and her characteristic shrill laugh echoed through the waiting area. </p><p>Ranma and Akane tensed but relaxed almost immediately and simply looked as Kodachi laughed herself off her seat, caught her breath, smoothed herself out and sat down again, still chuckling and looking for her still relatively new phone.</p><p>“Care to share with the class, Miss Kunou?” Ranma asked.</p><p>“I just realized. This will be an excellent story to place on that website I found recently. What is it called? Malicious compliance, yes that one.”</p>
<hr/><p>In the hotel, Nabiki felt her heartbeat start up again. That had probably been the longest it had stayed still, not counting when she’d first changed. She finished off the can of rabbit blood in her hand and then grabbed her phone.</p><p>/She’s defeated with no kiss./</p><p>/I saw that. I also saw Ranma change in front of her./</p><p>/Yep./</p><p>/Are you going back to the event?/</p><p>/I would, but it’s raining and left my umbrella up there. Not risking it with just the head wrap./</p><p>The statement was answered with an animated nodding emoji.</p><p>/My break’s over. Try to relax, Nabiki./</p><p>Nabiki responded with a thumbs up emoji and then set about to watch the last half of the earlier let’s play. Harvest fair shenanigans proceeded up through Kikoskia’s character being lauded at the closing ceremony.</p><p>“Well, that’s it folks. That’s the game. That’s all of Neverwinter Nights 2. Nothing left to…wait a minute. What’s going on?” The British man’s voice was interrupted as the next cutscene started up and Bevin Starling and Amie were bursting in to say that the village was under attack. “Oh no! The village under attack? By who? And so, when we come back folks, we’ll have to defend the village and certainly nothing terrible could happen that forces us to leave home and head out into the wider Sword Coast.”</p><p>The vampire let her head fall to the desk in front of her before lifting it back up and smoothing her hair again.</p><p>“That’s certainly not foreshadowing my own life at all.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>First, check out the related works note below here because my friend Branwen is writing a silly romp of vampire-references focused around Nabiki's change and the mystery of just how she got changed. It has started out gloriously and promises to continue to be so.</p><p>So...I almost failed to find a place for two new cameos or references. I did extend the Kikoskia reference, which I guess is now a cameo, because I decided it would almost be a crime to have mentioned Kikoskia and not feature his characteristic sign-on and sign-off. Then two things occurred to me: one the tournament might have someone on hand that could deal with unruly fighters even if a situation like this realistically would rarely occur because in a community like streetfighting this is the fastest way to get blacklisted. Two, I hadn't described or named any of the judges. I will admit, that makes these cameos a bit rushed and sudden, but so are a lot of the earlier ones and it's fun. This also means that I get to cameo the character of someone I've met in real life and adds both to my cameos to settings I like and people I like. </p><p>I will note, however, that cameoing Oya Guillén means the nebulous time setting stretches from "sometime vaguely early 21st century" to "sometime vaguely between early 21st and early 22nd century" since Callisto 6 takes place in 2119. That said, this is an alt-uni and Callisto energy is clearly not the only source of supernatural powers in the universe, so it could be this version of Oya exists in the vague 2Xth century time-setting of the fic. Though also, the Callisto 6 do cross timelines at times, so it could be an Oya traveling realities for fun.</p><p>I had showed the scene with Kodachi talking about proactive defenses to some friends and one person noted that Kodachi seemed like a very different character. We agreed that was inevitable in the face of Kodachi getting help for her mental health issues, but the suggestion was made to have her break out into her laugh in that rant. I had decided against that for two reasons: </p><p>a) Kodachi doesn't always end a rant in a laugh, if she's angry she sometimes is virtually growling.<br/>b) I don't want to take Kodachi's laugh away from her. </p><p>I don't want that to be a symptom of her mental health issues. I've done that to her in other fics and immediately regretted it. That's hers, that's her personality as much as her extravagant manner of speech. Being healthy does not mean erasing benign quirks and characteristics. To be perfectly clear, my friend agreed with me here. But I'm restating it to be clear to other people.</p><p>It had been noted I hadn't done a "Oh-hohohohoho!" typed out and I've been deliberately avoiding short-handing that. Instead I describe her shrill laughs (and this is why I created an excuse for her to laugh unconnected to anything that would trigger one of her issues).</p><p>Regarding Kodachi's issues with being awkward. It's part of what I notice about a lot of her behavior in the manga. She doesn't have a good handle on normal behavior but even in the manga she is visually trying to be what she thinks is normal. There is a minor disconnect that is made much worse by whatever causes her manic episodes. With the manic issues somewhat controlled, the disconnect in this Kodachi tends to manifest as awkward pauses plus delayed and seemingly disproportionate reactions as she figures things out. It's like before, her train of thought is running so dangerously fast that she never sees the disconnect and just derails messily onto the first idea. Now she sees it coming so she pauses to consider it first. It's a familiar feeling to me.</p><p>Now, on to the fighting. When Ranma defeated Xian Pu it is incredibly likely that Xian Pu was the technically and practically superior martial artist. Ranma lucked into that win. Also, the Kachuu Tenshin Amaguriken is, first and foremost, a training technique rather than something you would use in an actual fight. There's some recognition of this in the manga as when Ranma first learns it is used it in very limited ways and with a clear stance, but over the rest of the manga, just assimilates the speed into the entirety of their fighting style. Every so often a situation comes up requiring pushing their speed further in an emergency and they push it past their current level of speed. Afu T'axie in this case has not assimilated the technique into her form and is just using it as an attack technique, which creates that moment of vulnerability where she sets stance which Ranma takes advantage of.</p><p>Also, yes, Ranma, the person claiming Musabetsu Kakuto Ryu as a style, immediately got their move checked for cheating while Afu T'axie only got looked at when she demanded they look at the videos. Ranma's and Akane's style has a reputation. The Nuchiezu of Joketsuzoku have been isolated a long time and thus don't have the same reputation.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0016"><h2>16. Hokkaido Activities</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Moving away from Ranma, Akane, and Kodachi for a bit. We have the obligatory onsen episode.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Toe pick! Toe pick! Toe pick!”</p><p>Akari’s arms were pin-wheeling and her feet were skipping across the ice. She hadn’t quite fallen yet but her body was whipping a bit erratically with her attempts to hold her mostly non-existent balance. She managed to keep her feet on the ice together for about two-seconds. Unfortunately, her upper-body was still wavering and at the end of those two-seconds, her feet whipped out from under her. She felt herself hanging in the middle of the air for a moment before her arms were grabbed and she was pulled about at dizzying speeds before being pulled into a close embrace and gently spun out back onto the ice at a much easier pace. An arm was wrapped about her waist and the other holding one of her hands about the waist of a somewhat smaller girl.</p><p>“That’s not how you use toe picks.” Azusa said.</p><p>“I…I…” Akari stammered. “I thought I had the turn.”</p><p>“You’re skating like on normal skates. Here, skate with little Azusa.”</p><p>The brunette figure skater pulled around in front of Akari and directed the farm girl’s hands to her waist and backed up until Azusa’s back was pressed to Akari’s chest. There was a slight tremor to the other girl’s hands, so Azusa took a moment to look back, keeping their speed very slow as she did so. </p><p>“Is Akari-chan feeling okay?”</p><p>“Mhmmm. Yeah. Yeah.” Akari said, nodding. “I’m just…nervous.”</p><p>Akari hummed to herself questionably but then shrugged it off. “Okay. Match little Azusa.”</p><p>Akari spent the next hour focusing entirely on skating and learning what Azusa was trying to show her. A half-hour later she was trying the same turn and managing it. It was very pretty but she managed it with Azusa alongside her noting improvement and then pointing out mistakes. At the end of the hour, she was taking the turn almost twice as fast with a little bit less clumsiness.</p><p>“Way to go, Akari!” Ryouga called from the side of the lake, clapping as the farmer came to the edge and fell back into the snow.</p><p>“Little Azusa think we can learn some jumps tomorrow.”</p><p>“How did I get myself into this?” Akari sighed.</p><p>“Is it really all that much?” Ryouga asked.</p><p>The young woman groaned, propped herself up on her elbows, and leveraged herself up. “I wake up and do martial arts and endurance training for two hours. With you if you’re around, with Azusa otherwise. I go to my university classes. I have ballet and flexibility lessons with Azusa for an hour and a half. Then on the rink for an hour and half. I study for two hours. I soak in the bath until my muscles don’t hurt anymore. And then I go to sleep.”</p><p>She paused for a moment, thought about it and leaned on her knees. </p><p>“I guess it’s not so different than having a full-time job and university.”</p><p>“Little Azusa is so proud of her new partner!” The figure skater said reaching in to hug the other woman and then sitting down next to her. “So Little Azusa has treat for Akari and Charlotte! A…”</p><p>Akari held up a hand. “Stop. You promised.”</p><p>Azusa’s face scrunched up briefly, her shoulders tensing up. “Little Azusa has treat for Akari and…Ryouga.”</p><p>“Thank you.” Ryouga answered. “So, what was the treat?”</p><p>Immediately the figure skater cheered up again and she reached to her bag by Ryouga and pulled out some tickets. “Little Azusa and friends are going to an onsen!”</p><p>“Uhhh…wouldn’t that be me and you in one room and Ryouga just by himself…somewhere?” </p><p>Akari very carefully did not say that she expected the somewhere to be off by a kilometer or ten if he went off completely by himself.</p><p>“Oh, little Azusa knows it’s boring by yourself. So instead she got one onsen for all three of us. Two nights and one day in a Ryokan with a private onsen for the suite.”</p><p>Ryouga and Akari felt a flush rising to their cheeks and shared a look. Azusa looked at them and laughed once with her eyes narrowed.</p><p>“Oh, little Azusa’s friends so embarrassed to be in room naked together? It’ll only be your what…third time? Little Azusa made sure there were two bedrooms.”</p><p>Akari hid her face while Ryouga looked up into the sky scratching his head and chuckling nervously.</p><p>“You should not visit Hokkaido without visiting an onsen.” Azusa said in a sing-song tone. </p><p>Akari straightened up and looked around nervously. “I know it’s weird, but I always find public bathing and locker rooms a bit embarrassing.” </p><p>“But this won’t be public. This will be private. Just us Little Azusa, Ch…Ryouga, and Akari-chan.” She was still smiling but it had started to fade a bit. Her surprise was clearly not going the way she’d expected it to. Akari swallowed and tried to shut down that nervous tingle as she nodded.</p><p>“Okay, yeah. Let’s do it. Your right, it’ll be fun.” She said.</p><p>“Yay!”</p><p>“Wait, what about the hotel rooms we already have?” Ryouga asked.</p><p>“Oh, Little Azusa already checked out for today. She told them we’d be back next week. Well two days for Ryouga.”</p><p>Akari started to sputter. “But…before you told us…what?”</p><p>“Check out was this morning. Of course, Little Azusa had to do that already.” The figure skater said with a shrug.</p><p>“I guess that kind of makes sense. Which ryokan is it?”</p><p>Azusa paused a moment and then brought out her phone. “Ryokan Kanbara.”</p><p>Ryouga blinked. “Uh, I thought that was the next town over?”</p><p>Azusa looked at her phone. “No, it’s here. Phone says it’s a thirty-minute walk.”</p><p>“Uhh…so we should…get the luggage from the hotel then.”</p><p>“Little Azusa took care of that two while Akari-chan and Ryouga ate breakfast. Luggage is delivered and in the suite.” She proudly displayed her phone.</p><p>“Azusa could…could you get permission from us before moving our things?”</p><p>“But then it wouldn’t be a surprise.” Azusa shrugged and shook her head, wondering how they could miss that.</p><p>“Okay, we should start heading to the inn then.” </p><p>Ryouga stood up and started to walk when Akari and Azusa each grabbed one of his arms.</p><p>“Not that way, Ryouga.” Akari said. “The park exit is this way. You’re going to get lost again.”</p><p>Ryouga laughed nervously. “Heh. Wouldn’t want to get lost on the way to Ryokan Kanbara.”</p>
<hr/><p>The inn had clearly been in the area for generations as the foundations had clearly been sitting for ages, but the building itself had been renovated fairly recently. It had kept to the traditional styling and décor hiding all the modern conveniences. </p><p>“Wow, this is a pretty place. Wow, Azusa. Just…wow.”</p><p>“Little Azusa knows how to pick good hotels.” The figure skater said proudly. “Does Ch…Ryouga like the Ryokan?”</p><p>“Mhmmm,” Ryouga said, from under his scarf, nodding. “This is definitely one of the best ryokan in Hokkaido.”</p><p>They walked in through the entrance and immediately felt the welcome warmth of the lobby heaters as a teenaged blonde girl in a uniform kimono came forward to greet them while Akari and Azusa loosened their coats and scarves.</p><p>“Hello, and welcome to Ryokan Kanbara. I’m Ellie and I’ll show you to your rooms. You’re the Shiratori party, correct?”</p><p>“That’s us! Little Azusa is here to help her friends train.” She moved over to hug Akari and beamed broadly. “Akari-chan and….”</p><p>Ryouga saw Azusa turning to look at him already thinking about introducing him. He looked about wildly, panicking and pointed.</p><p>“Huh, that’s a neat thing there on your uniform.”</p><p>The figure skater blinked and turned to look at the small pink omamori hanging off the girl’s shoulder and started to lean forward, staring. Behind her, Akari’s eyes went wide and she turned to stare at Ryouga, hands spreading apart momentarily in a silently loud gesture of “What the hell!?”</p><p>“Oh, that’s so pretty…”</p><p>“Oh hey!” Akari said, stepping forward and hugging Azusa this time. The fact this bound up Azusa’s arms was entirely incidental. “Where did you get that?”</p><p>“This? Oh, the family makes them. They’re available at the gift shops.” </p><p>She pointed toward the sectioned off area in question and while her back was turned, Akari reached out to swat Ryouga’s shoulder twice, putting her smile back on as soon as the girl turned to look at them.</p><p>“Great. Hear that, Azusa? We can go over there buy you one for your very own.”</p><p>“Little Azusa not a baby.” The figure-skater said blandly. A moment later she smiled again. “But will forgive Akari-chan for an omamori.”</p><p>“All right then!” Akari said, shooting a glare at Ryouga as she walked with Azusa over to the gift shop.</p><p>That left Ellie with Ryouga. The teenager looked to the wandering martial artist, face still wrapped up in the scarf and cricked her neck to the side.</p><p>“I’m sorry, are you feeling cold, sir?”</p><p>“Uhh….no, I just. Umm…I’m just going to wait until I’m in the room. Uhh… I mean, I have a small cold so uhhh….don’t want to spread it around.”</p><p>The girl leaned forward looking up. “You look familiar.”</p><p>“Err, maybe I’ve stayed here before.”</p><p>“Huh…maybe. I mean, this is only my second year here.”</p><p>“Oh, right…uhh…hmmm…uh, well it’s still possible, right?”</p><p>Ellie narrowed her eyes at him but then the two women came back with Azusa holding a small bag and Akari, looking relieved and still shooting Ryouga a look which he shrunk from. The teenager smiled and turned to them.</p><p>“All right, we got your luggage in the suite already. So, let’s go ahead and get you into the room and settled for your stay.”</p><p>They walked down the hallway past a couple of other guests and turned a corner, just missing the sight of a woman in her mid-twenties wearing a uniform kimono with the added features of cat-ear headbands and a fake tail. Further on Ellie opened the door with a key and opening the door to gesture them inside.</p><p>“Here you go. The key unlocks the door and you place it here…” she slotted into a fixture on the wall, causing the lights to switch on “…while you’re in the suite. Otherwise the only power we run without that is to the fridge. There is a list of prices for the minibar on the wall there.”</p><p>Ellie gestured toward the kitchen area separated by a large counter. Akari saw the western style oven and stove combination which was a rare sight in Japanese hotels. Next to it was a full sink and then a tall refrigerator. The girl then gestured to the center of the room with the kotatsu table fit for six people and beyond that to the door leading to the suite’s private onsen.</p><p>“And that is your onsen. The fences are high for privacy and you can there is a switch to activate the scramble field in case anybody is trying to fly drones over it. Though that will ruin your wifi and cell-phone service while it’s on. The main onsen hours are posted on the flyer at the desk. The TV gets most streaming services and there is a PS-Y in the cabinet.”</p><p>“Won’t that scramble field affect other guests?” Akari asked, hesitantly.</p><p>“Not from here. We have three suites that are placed so that we can do that. This is one of them.” She turned to look at Ryouga still wrapped in his scarf. “Oh and there is a pharmacy down the street if you want to get something for that cold.”</p><p>“You have a cold?” Akari said, turning to Ryouga.</p><p>“Yeah…uhh, just a scratchy throat really. It’ll be fine. Don’t worry about it.”</p><p>“Uh huh…okay. Anyway. Someone is going to be by to make sure you’ve got fresh towels but if you need anything else don’t hesitate to call us on the house phone.”</p><p>“Thank you very much.” Akari said. “I think we’ll probably be having food soon.”</p><p>“Oh, there’s the Ryokan’s kitchen, we’ve got a lot of Japanese and German dishes. And there’s a list of delivery places next to the onsen hours.”</p><p>“Oh, wow, that’ll be great.”</p><p>“If there’s nothing else?” Ellie asked.</p><p>“Little Azusa thinks we’re okay!”</p><p>“Enjoy your stay, then.” </p><p>The teenager smiled, bowed and started to walk toward the door. She was half-way there when Akari turned toward Ryouga.</p><p>“What the heck was that about?” she demanded under her breath jabbing her finger into his chest and then gesturing toward Azusa. “Why did you do that to her?”</p><p>“Little Azusa is not a toy.”</p><p>“I’m sorry.” He said, unwrapping his scarf and setting it aside. “I…I sort of panicked.”</p><p>From the door Ellie called out. “The towels are already here.”</p><p>“Okay!” Akari called cheerfully before turning back to Ryouga. “What do you mean you panicked? What could be here that you could possibly panic about?”</p><p>Azusa waved to the nice lady in the cat costume carrying the towels toward the onsen. The woman paused, stared at Ryouga a couple of seconds, scrunching up her face a moment before breaking into a broad smile and continuing on toward the onsen.</p><p>“Well…”</p><p>“Wait…is this some sort of haunted ryokan?” Akari asked. “Are we in danger? Did you bring us to some sort of monster-hunting thing?”</p><p>“No. I mean Azusa booked the room and I’d have warned you if the inn was haunted.”</p><p>At the door to the onsen, the woman in the cat-costume took a phone out of a hidden pocket and started aiming it toward where Ryouga and Akari were talking. Azusa waved again and then posed with both her hands flashing Vs. The woman then pulled her phone down and started typing into it.</p><p>“So. We’re not in danger?”</p><p>“No.” Ryouga said. “We are absolutely not in danger. Practically everyone working in this inn is a monster-hunter of some sort anyway. Or at least in training.”</p><p>“Wait a minute. How could you possibly know that? Why are you acting so funny.”</p><p>Then sound of running feet came to their ears followed by someone ringing the bell and knocking on the door repeatedly. </p><p>“Ryouga! You jerk! Let me back in there! ‘I have a cold.’ Right!”</p><p>Ryouga’s face turned white.</p><p>“Oh no.”</p><p>Akari looked toward the door and then narrowed her eyes at Ryouga. “Okay, the hostess girl knows you.”</p><p>The woman in the cat costume walked up then and wrapped her arm around Ryouga’s shoulder and waved at Akari.</p><p>“Heya, I’m Ryouga’s big sister. Pleased to meet you.”</p><p>“Hello, Yayoi.”</p>
<hr/><p>“What are you two doing here.”</p><p>“Training.” Ellie said.</p><p>“Maternity.” Yayoi said, smiling broadly.</p><p>Ryouga stopped rubbing his face and stared at her. “You’re having a kid.”</p><p>“Yup!”</p><p>“You need to pay attention to the family discord, Ryouga.” Ellie said.</p><p>“Oh, god. I’m going to have to make an offering to every shrine.”</p><p>“That’s what I said!”</p><p>“Hey, don’t be mean. Little Akihito will hear you.” She cradled her stomach and dramatically pouted.</p><p>“So, how are you two Ryouga’s sisters? Because you’re both…” she gestured toward their blonde hair.</p><p>“Half-Norwegian.” Ellie offered. “Ryouga and I share a father.”</p><p>“Half-German. We have the same biological mother. My mom is the Kanbara family of the Ryokan Kanbara and she married dad.”</p><p>Ryouga sighed and looked toward Akari. “Remember when I said my parents weren’t exactly monogamous?”</p><p>“Ohhhhh. Little Azusa understands now. So how many brothers and sisters does Charlotte have?”</p><p>The two blonde women snorted. “Charlotte?”</p><p>“Azusa. You know you promised not to call Ryouga that anymore.” Akari couldn't resist a smirk as she spoke.</p><p>“Oh. Ooops. Little Azusa sorry. She’s just so confused when people mess with her trigger.” She spoke the last a bit flatly and giving Ryouga a sharp look.</p><p>Ellie’s phone was already out, and she was typing as Yayoi crossed her arms. “I like them. I like you two. You’ll fit right in.”</p><p>“Thank you.” Akari said with a broad smile that faded after a moment. “I think…I’m not going to have to train as a monster-hunter now, am I? I’m already training as a martial arts figure skater.”</p><p>“Huh, that’s a coincidence. We just had to kick one of those out.” Ellie said. “And no. I mean, it’s sort of in the family. But I plan to be an actress. But I do want to know how to defend myself.”</p><p>Akari looked toward Yayoi.</p><p>“Full time monster-hunter!” the woman declared loudly and proudly, eliciting an uncertain chuckle from Akari.</p><p>Ryouga’s sisters’ phones buzzed and they looked. Ellie stood up and waved at them.</p><p>“Okay, we have duties. But feel doubly free to ask for anything you need. After all…Charlotte’s friends are our friends.”</p><p>Yayoi followed after the younger blonde half-Hibiki, waving back behind her. “Bye Charlotte.”</p><p>Azusa and Akari waved them off, the figure skater significantly more energetic about it.</p><p>“Oh god, I’m doomed.” Ryouga said. </p><p>“Doom for later. Onsen time for now.” </p><p>In the midst of everything, Akari had forgotten the onsen up until Akari stood up and started taking her clothes off with just a simple matter of fact series of movements. She felt heat rise to her cheeks and the familiar embarrassment she’d associated with locker rooms and public baths rise up. Beside her, Ryouga at least had had the presence of mind to turn around away from the sight while she was fixated.</p><p>Azusa folded her clothes up and set them on the kotatsu and turned to look at the other two with a confused expression. “Are Akari-chan and Ryouga coming?”</p><p>“Uhh…”</p><p>Azusa rolled her eyes and sighed. “Are Akari-chan and Ryouga planning on having sex in front of Little Azusa?”</p><p>“Uhhh…no.” Ryouga said.</p><p>“N….no!” Akari said, shaking her head.</p><p>“Then Little Azusa don’t see what the problem is.” She huffed and threw her arms up. “Little Azusa just go by herself then.”</p><p>She was sulking in the hot spring alone for only a minute before she brightened at the sight of an embarrassed looking Ryouga and Akari coming out to step into the onsen with her. </p><p>“Sorry about that. I’m just…this sort of thing has always been embarrassing.” Akari said as she lowered herself into the water next to Azusa.</p><p>“Little Azusa should have asked first, maybe. Sorry.” The figure skater said in an embarrassed undertone. “Just thought it would be fun.”</p><p>“Yeah, a lot of people do.” Akari said.</p><p>“Why do you get embarrassed do you know?” Ryouga asked. “I mean, a guy naked with girls can get into a lot of misunderstandings…so…”</p><p>“I don’t really know. It always just feels weird.” Akari shrugged. “It’s just all those other people around without clothes. It’s like my heart starts beating faster and it gets hard to focus.”</p><p>“Akari-chan been to many mixed locker rooms and public baths?” Azusa asked, sharing a look with Ryouga.</p><p>“No. Just women’s baths and girls’ locker rooms.” Akari said. “Why would that matter?”</p><p>“So, Little Azusa wonders…how you feel looking at Ryouga naked.”</p><p>“I mean, he’s…uh…” Akari flushed and started shrinking into her shoulders. “He’s hot. Just looking at him makes my heart go faster and…wait.”</p><p>She paused and looked from Ryouga to Akari as the two stared at her.</p><p>“I like men. I do. I just told you how hot Ryouga was.”</p><p>“Akari, you’re Akane’s friend.” Ryouga spoke slowly and pointedly, emphasizing Akane’s name. "There are people who like both."</p><p>“Oh god. Oh god. No…I mean…I’d know. Right? That’s not a thing you just don’t notice right?”</p><p>Ryouga shrugged helplessly. </p><p>“Little Azusa wouldn’t know. She’s broken.”</p><p>Akari paused and turned to look at the figure skater. Ryouga leaned over to get a good line of sight on her face as well.</p><p>“What do you mean you’re broken?” Akari asked.</p><p>Azusa shrugged. “Sex is…okay? But Little Azusa never really get excited about it. Naked people are just naked people. Don’t see the big deal about it.”</p><p>Ryouga spoke in a low tone as he asked a question. “Who said you were broken?”</p><p>“Mikkie.” Azusa said waving a hand away dismissively. “Sanzenin Mikado. Little Azusa’s old partner. He used to think I was a ‘tease’ but then he said he realized I was just broken. He said. I had no passion on the ice with him.”</p><p>“Is he who you had sex with?” Akari asked.</p><p>“Ewww, no. Mikkie is disgusting. Ewww. No, Little Azusa tried once with a boy and once with a girl.” She shrugged. “So, guess Mikkie was right. Little Azusa is just broken and never grew up.”</p><p>“That’s not broken, Azusa.” Ryouga said. “It’s called asexual. There’s nothing wrong with it.”</p><p>“Why would anyone…” Akari wondered before reaching over to hug her.</p><p>“Oh no! Little Azusa’s chastity is in danger.” The figure skater said with a chuckle.</p><p>Akari rolled her eyes and splashed water into her face causing the other woman to chuckle. </p><p>“If I meet your old partner I’m going to punch him through a wall.” Ryouga said.</p><p>Azusa looked up toward the trees overlooking the onsen and nodded. “That’s the correct reaction.”</p><p>The farmer turned to look at Ryouga and narrowed her eyes. “How do you know all this stuff?”</p><p>Ryouga shrugged and spread his arms wide. “I have a lot of brothers and sisters.”</p>
<hr/><p>The morning came and saw Ryouga getting ribbed by his family, blood related or otherwise, for trying to sneak into the area without visiting. Akari noticed they were also getting fairly large portions for their breakfast. Portions which Akari was starting to grow concerned over as the lake came into view. Training started with running laps alongside Ryouga and Azusa at the end of which she felt lucky that she hadn’t given up the contents of her stomach.</p><p>After that, while Ryouga started his martial routine, Azusa and Akari took to the ice. The agriculture student was half-suspicious that Azusa was both training her and trying to figure out how a paired figure skating routine with two women would work. But they were still working on basic jumps for now. Last night’s revelations were in the back of her mind and there was something meditative about focusing on the physical challenges Azusa was setting her while those thoughts were trying to still process in the back of her mind.</p><p>Her thoughts drifted her cousins and her grandfather. What would this do to her standing with them? The cousins? Oh, that was obvious, her cousins would use it to push her out. The anxiety reached her thoughts and she stumbled, almost falling painfully into the ice, stopped by Azusa catching her.</p><p>“No thinking outside the ice, Akari-chan. That’s how you get hurt.”</p><p>Azusa took her hands and started skating away, pulling Akari along and forcing her to follow along. “You think of the ice. You think of your partner. You think of your opponent. You move with Little Azusa. All right?”</p><p>“Okay!” Akari said, nodding.</p><p>They spun out along the edge of the lake, avoiding the other skaters. Azusa let go, releasing Akari onto her own and, biting her lips, the farmer gathered herself up into…she thought it was a lux, but wasn’t sure. Felt herself do one rotation, then a half-way through a second, when she was grabbed and pulled up and away from the ice. She was wondering what she had failed at for Azusa to grab her again, but then saw Azusa skating toward her.</p><p>“Hmph. Is this who you think to replace me at your side with? Azusa?” A cultured voice asked. “Plain. Uncultured movements. A common flower if anything. You might as well teach a pig to skate.”</p><p>“Let her go, Sanzenin!” </p><p>And suddenly the man holding her was rocketing across the lake and through a tree as Azusa took hold of her and twirled in front.</p><p>“You said wall.” </p><p>Ryouga looked to Azusa. “What?”</p><p>“You said you’d punch Mikkie through a wall. That was a tree.”</p><p>Akari’s eyes widened and she pointed toward the figure of Mikado pulling himself out of the snow and sneering at them awkwardly as he regained the ice.</p><p>“This is your old partner?”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Oof, much stress writing this.</p><p>To be honest, I'm not sure what to put in this note section. Ace is a weird thing for me to think about because I half think I might be that but also think I might be just trying to explain my own failure to have any sort of sexual encounter. My attempts at asking out people on dates, the rare times I've done that, were mostly based on the perception that that was the normal way to behave. It was just another script I had observed and tried to apply to my interactions with other people. But I do feel arousal from some stories or images. But when it comes to real people, I always just really like being friends and talking and gaming and stuff like that. For most of my life, I've said that I'm sort of a coward when it comes to women. To be honest with myself, I still think I might just be afraid of rejection and trying to find a reason why I've never really tried. There's a very strong urge to just erase this note...but I kind of feel like saying it is something I need to do a little.</p><p>As to whether Azusa will end up having sex with either Akari or Ryouga? She's capable of it, and if she thought it would benefit them, maybe. But neither of them is going to push for that, especially not now, and I have no strong desire to go that way.</p><p>Another part that I get tense over is Akari's revelation, because it's outside my experience enough that I'm worried about whether I did it right. I will say that this chapter is making me re-think certain plans I have had for a while now. One concept I started this fic with was the joke of "everybody with everybody" that pops up fairly often in Ranma 1/2 fic, but as I've moved through the story I've dropped more and more of that into just exploring concepts of various types of relationships.</p><p>Then there's the bit where Ryouga poked the kleptomania. I wanted to show them being aware of that, but originally it was just going to trigger on its own. Having Ryouga do it was something I really hesitated to do and almost unwrote it. And I definitely had Azusa punish him for it with "Charlotte". But it also gave me a chance to have Azusa be self-aware of her issues and draw a boundary with her friends.</p><p>Regarding the rest of Ranma's tournament, the remaining rounds would just be fighting for the sake of fighting since the major plot stuff is done. I will admit that I am mightily tempted to have him lose to Kiyone mostly just for Rule of Funny and because Kiyone never has things go her way.</p><p>So, Ryouga's family.</p><p>My thoughts are that Ryouga's parents are both Hibiki, just different branches with a common ancestor and similar tendency to get lost (I've been casually looking up things that might cause a lack of direction off and on the last couple of weeks, but haven't found much yet, might have to research a little less casually). They are both very devoted to each other, but understanding of embracing the person there when they can't be together. They are honest about this with their lovers and I imagine that hasn't always worked out. I'm sure there's been at least one blackmail attempt and probably a few burned bridges. That said, Ryouga has about three half-siblings through his mother, and a number of others through his father. This is further clouded by the number of siblings, uncles, and aunts that he has that are not actually blood related but whom consider themselves all family. Like Ellie and Yayoi have no blood relationship but as far as they're concerned, they're sisters.</p><p>As to the inn, Yayoi's father married one of Ryouga's father's occasional lovers and they took her name. I figure the Ryokan Kanbara basically functions as a get-away for the (very) extended family and training for fighting monsters. If you've seen Beyond the Boundary, you might recognize this younger Yayoi as the mother for the main male character of that anime. And people are constantly evaluating the line between genius and crazy in regards to her antics. She's constantly embarrassing her son among other things. </p><p>Ellie came from trying to find another reference and remembering Kathleen De Vere's recent playthrough of Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore where Ellie is the generically half-Scandinavian archer girl. She's between 14-16 here and 18 in that game, so this would be a couple of years before she's part of saving the world (assuming the world needs her saving it in this timeline). </p><p>As to why Ellie didn't recognize Ryouga immediately....it's been a fair number of years since she's seen him. They mostly communicate via email and such...now that he knows more about his phone, he's probably been more in contact.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0017"><h2>17. Recriminations</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>A fight goes poorly.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sanzenin glared from across the lake as many of the other skaters on the lake fled the ice in the face of what looked to be a fight in the works. He combed out his hair and pocketed the accessory before turning to address the three others clearing away his anger for an appearance of being aloof.</p><p>“I should have guessed at such loutish behavior interrupting a private conversation.”</p><p>“You’re the lout that interrupted our private interactions!” Akari shouted from behind Azusa and Ryouga.</p><p>The tall man broke his aloof expression again to shout across the ice. “You have no appreciation of someone doing you a favor.”</p><p>As they spoke, Ryouga moved carefully across the ice and the two women started to skate for the edge of the lake. There was a clattering sound, drawing their eyes to the side where a white, round object detailed in the shape of a flower spun about twice before bursting in a display of light leaving a watery hole in the ice. Akari stopped short of the hole though the suddenness with which she had to do it left her momentarily unsteady and Azusa reached out a hand to steady her.</p><p>Further up, a tall white-haired lady slipped out onto the ice and beside Sanzenin. She was dressed in a white dress over a floral leotard. The train of the dress flowed behind her and dropped not quite to her ankles. Azusa glanced at the long train disapprovingly and then flipped her eyes back to the motions of the other two.</p><p>“Tsk, tsk. We did not dismiss you.”</p><p>“You see, Asuka, I found a partner who complements me perfectly on the ice. My dear?”</p><p>“Allow me to introduce myself. I am Saginomiya Asuka. The White Lily. I think perhaps I have already had dealings with each other, though at the time I did deem you worthy to look upon my beauty.” A fan was produced from somewhere and placed dramatically in front of her face.</p><p>“Wait! You’re the lady that put me in an electric chair, aren’t you?” </p><p>Asuka blinked aristocratically and leaned over her fan to look at her. “Hmmm, oh yes. You were the girl that thug was championing for. I am pleased to see you remember that. I felt it was an amusing prank.”</p><p>The farmer sputtered and started to skate forward at the other two. She was stopped when Azusa and Ryouga grabbed at her arms a moment before another section of the ice erupted in steam. Looking past, the woman in white held another grenade in her hand, fan discarded. She smiled and slipped it back into her shoulder bag.</p><p>Snarling, Ryouga, pushed off the ice to leap over the hole and swing out at the White Lily, only for Sanzenin to maneuver her out of the way and lash out with a kick at Ryouga’s head. The wandering martial artist blocked it, but the figure skater used it to push off and create momentum for himself pushing away.</p><p>Behind, Azusa took Akari’s hand and started spinning swiftly around Akari. </p><p>“Watch Little Azusa’s face! Spin with me!”</p><p>“But I don’t know how to spin!” Akari protested as the speed built.</p><p>“Don’t worry! Little Azusa does! Just let go when Little Azusa says so!”</p><p>“What?”</p><p>Ryouga found the ice stealing away his traction as he tried to pursue the two interlopers. And then one of those grenades rolled onto the ice in front of him. The flash of light and steam opened up into a gaping hole of freezing water. He teetered on the edge, trying to pull himself back.</p><p>“Now!”</p><p>Akari let go as Azusa lifted up off the ground and for a moment, the smaller woman was anchored to the agriculture student, and then she let go as well and flew out on an arc across the lake. Akari had started to lose momentum as soon as Azusa was not helping her with the spin, and the anchor hadn’t been solid, so Azusa didn’t land where she had wanted to, but she landed with momentum that she could easily add to. Leaping up, she came to Ryouga’s shoulders and pushed him back away from the hole in the ice, leaping out to land in an approach against Sanzenin.</p><p>“Little Azusa wonders where the ‘sanctity of the rink’ talk is.” </p><p>She leaped into a triple, kicking out on each rotation. Mikado ducked under the first strike, side-stepped the second, and was sneering as the third passed under his own leg. Azusa’s eyes widened as she folded back under the kick and saw that he had led with the blade instead of the foot.</p><p>“This isn’t the rink. This is the real world. Not that a brat like you would know what that is.”</p><p>He spun around, swinging Asuka out like a laughing pole-axe and Azusa ducked under the strike, noting that the blades were again leading. She backed away, judging her approach as Sanzenin and the Lily pursued her. Further down the ice, she could see Akari recovering from the spin and starting to skate around the holes in the ice, already starting to head in their direction. </p><p>Then Ryouga barreled in from the side and slammed into Sanzenin. The figure skater tumbled to the side skidding across the ice again and pulling the White Lily with him. She let go, saving herself to Azusa’s combined shock and disgust as she pressed forward on the advantage. Ryouga was doing similarly, though was taking longer without skates. </p><p>“Watch out!” </p><p>Akari called out from behind as the Lily tossed out three of the grenades from her bag. Three geysers of steam erupted between one pair and the other. Azusa realized right away that she wasn’t going to be able to safely stop and lifted up into what felt to her like an awkward jump. She was too far from Ryouga to help him this time as he tried to stop from spilling into the water. </p><p>“Damn it!”</p><p>Azusa glanced back to see Ryouga’s arms pin-wheeling a moment before he splashed down into the water. Behind him Akari was diving into the water after him. Nodding she turned her attention back to their attackers. Sanzenin was standing up again, but she directed her attention to the white-haired woman. Asuka was smoothing out her dress and started skating away with a smirk as she dropped a flower behind her which burst into a wide, sweet smelling smoke. </p><p>The Lily’s smirk lasted up until Azusa grabbed the trail of her dress and yanked her back through the smoke. Azusa released her, coughing and choking on a spin towards one of the holes in the ice.</p><p>“Long dresses are a no-no!”</p><p>Sanzenin was then in her face and she had to duck under and then over another pair of blade-leading kicks. Out of the corner of her eye, Azusa saw the White Lily frantically pull another floral themed canister out of her bag and toss it into the water ahead. In puff of icy mist, it re-froze.</p><p>Under the water, Akari felt the cold of the waters seeping through her coat and into her skin as she clumsily swum down to grab the struggling bundle of yellow clothes and pig.   She started to swim for the surface, only to see the hole above her flash freeze as icicles stabbed down towards her. She felt one tear through the sleeve of her coat and just missing the skin but stealing of the minimal protection she had from the cold water.</p><p>The White Lily skated over Akari and Ryouga further out onto the lake, followed closely by Azusa and Sanzenin. She awkwardly pushed through the could water towards the next hole and pushed Ryouga and his clothes out onto the ice. She started to climb out herself when Ryouga’s frantic oinking drew her attention toward where Asuka was approaching and already winding up to throw something in her direction. She let herself fall back and pushed back under the water as the water again flash froze into a mess of jagged icicles.</p><p>Azusa spun past Sanzenin, blocking a strike and returning it with an attempted sweep. She heard the oinking and looked past Mikado’s shoulder, seeing the incoming missile. She spun back around again drawing Mikado to turn about just in time to get a pig to the face. </p><p>“What the hell?! Get this thing off of me!”</p><p>In that moment, Azusa broke off and sped towards where Akari should have been but wasn’t. She made a small hop and then smashed down hard into the thinner flash-frozen ice, slicing through it until she hit the natural ice and bouncing off it again to land back on solid ice.</p><p>Behind her, Sanzenin managed to pull Ryouga off his face and tossed the pig away where Asuka caught him with a smirk. Mikado’s face was scratched up and he looked ahead toward Azusa with a blazing fury.</p><p>Under the water, Akari saw the line slashed through the ice above her and pushed up, breaking the icicles aside as she did. She gasped as she broke through into the air out of the sharp ice and cold water and started climbing out of the ice herself. She rolled onto the ice and looked over in time to see Akari landed and Sanzenin behind slashing down in a kick. Scrambling she grabbed a chunk of ice and tossed it. The ice bounced off his head and the kick didn’t land as hard as it could have, but there was still a spray of blood as the skate-blade slid down Azusa’s back.</p><p>“Azusa!”</p><p>Akari’s body was shivering as she moved to stand up and try skating awkwardly around the open water. Azusa was moving again, ignoring the pain in her back as she avoided a second strike and feinted a leaping straight kick into a crescent and slamming the back of her heel into his face. She landed with a wince as he landed and tried to bend her back under the next strike. The injury slowed her and she had to lift her arm up to divert the strike away from her body, leaving a red line drawn across her arm. Followed then by another slash to her leg, causing her to fall to the ice.</p><p>Akari called out, trying to just push herself into a charge at Sanzenin. He turned around dismissively to backhand her, but she barreled through, slamming into him. Stumbled backward, falling on his ass. Akari slammed into the ice herself and was having trouble getting her body to do anything more. </p><p>Azusa pulled herself toward Akari and held her as the white-haired lady holding Ryouga skated over. The woman was holding Ryouga tightly and preventing the pig from being able to bite her. She stared smugly down at Akari and Azusa.</p><p>“I think she needs to get out of those wet things, don’t you? She’s not quite DB. Sweeney is she? But at least you got the selfish bitch act down, don’t you dear?”</p><p>Sneering, Sanzenin struggled to his feet and skated over to stand at the White Lily’s side. He glanced to the pig in the White Lily’s hands and grimaced in disgust before looking toward Akari and smiling smugly. </p><p>“Did you think I was going to just let you back into competition?”</p><p>“What did Azusa do to you?!”</p><p>She skated forward and yelled in her face. “You cost me the Olympics! You’re never getting back into the sport!”</p><p>Before he could say much else, a cyan bolt of light slammed into the White Lily’s arm, causing her to drop Ryouga.</p><p>“Who dares strike the White Lily?”</p><p>Ryouga meanwhile scuttled over the ice and bit into Mikado’s ankle. </p><p>“Owww! Damn beast.”</p><p>He started to raise his feet to kick down and then barely dodged another cyan bolt of light. He followed its trajectory and widened his eyes as he tracked first the cyan-haired archer at the far shore with a bow that screamed “not-natural” and the approach of several men and women converging on their position. He grabbed hold of Asuka and shouted. </p><p>“Let’s get out of here!”</p><p>“We have them on…Oh! Oh fuck! Where the hell did they come from?!”</p><p>The White Lily and Sanzenin rushed to the edge of the ice as the White Lily seemed to just drop every grenade she had behind her, including several smoke grenades as they made their way to one of three black cars with the rear doors open.</p><p>“Damn it, they’re hurt. Oreldo, do you have your first aid kit?”</p>
<hr/><p>“I don’t know about you, but I tend to get very quiet when I begin looking in earnest for the chobus.”</p><p>The words were English spoken with a North American accent and produced by a Caucasian man with a bald head and glasses. He sported an elegant goatee and was currently in front of several computer screens. There was a green screen behind him and one of the screens showed the computerized image of a martial arts shop filled with all sorts of Chinese weapons. Currently the screen was filled with a lot of spears and various polearms. He was interrupted by a cheerful digital sound as a message popped up on one of the screens.</p><p>“Oh, welcome back ‘HotKittyMomma2b’, it’s actually been forty-three minutes since the last time you sent a message. You know, you don’t have to cheer every time you type into chat, right?”</p><p>That same cheerful sound announced a new message.</p><p>“Well, I’m glad you have a day off and money to burn because I think you’ve given us twenty thousand bits just today. Including cheering apparently when no actual stream was running. You’re rapidly becoming our most enthusiastic first-timer ever.”</p><p>That same cheerful sound announced another message.</p><p>“Ohh…. Carot under-score carot. The classic ascii emojis. Anyway, I hope your forty-minute break was you getting some food.”</p><p>The same cheerful sound announced another message, and the man leaned forward to make sure he was reading that correctly.</p><p>“’Someone was trying to kill my brother and his girlfriends and the family had to handle it?’ I seriously hope that’s a video game you’re talking about…speaking of which, it occurs to me now would be a good time for me to take a break. So, this is your friend Ian with Loading Ready Run, and I’ll be back with Shenmue 3 after I cycle some fluids.”</p>
<hr/><p>Sitting at her laptop, Yayoi turned to look where Akari wrapped up in heated blankets while Azusa’s arm was being stitched up by a tall blonde-man somewhere in his early 40s. Ryouga was leaning against the wall, frowning heavily and crossing his arms. They were in an off-building of the Ryokan that had, at some point, been converted into a clinic.</p><p>“I was useless.” Ryouga said glumly.</p><p>“No, no, you h…helped!” Akari protested. The space around her eye where Mikado had backhanded her was already bruising up. “I’m the one that got Azusa hurt because she had to help me.”</p><p>Ryouga looked at her. “You were in the water to get me and you got a hit in on Sanzenin.”</p><p>“You knocked Mikkie on his ass.” Azusa said.</p><p>“But I didn’t really hurt him the way you both did.”</p><p>“Hold still.” The blonde man told Azusa. “Unless you want it to scar badly. And keep that leg elevated until I can get to it.”</p><p>The door opened letting in Ellie, her hair no longer cyan and her bow no longer present. She looked over everyone and looked relieved to see they were all looking out of physical danger. Behind her a woman with long, dark hair and carrying a long katana strode into the room and looked to the blonde man.</p><p>“Everything all right here?” she asked.</p><p>“No permanent damage. But morale is low. Did you get them?”</p><p>“They played a shell-game with cars!” Ellie complained. “First it was those three, but then they met others. Who the hell comes up with a literal fleet of identical cars and henchmen to beat up a figure-skater and her friends in Hokkaido? Edward turned one to glass. I got the tires out of one. Suruga totaled one car with another car. Auntie Suzuka went all ‘Twilight’ and destroyed like ten. Then there was a freaking stampede of cattle from somewhere! But no assholes in charge.”</p><p>“Someone with money.” The woman said, she looked over the three miserable people and nodded. “Okay, get patched up and then tell me what’s up.”</p><p>Azusa quietly nodded.</p><p>An hour later found Azusa sitting between Ryouga and Akari at what appeared to be the family dining room. The older woman sat across from them with an implacable and almost unreadable expression. She looked up as the blonde walked into the room.</p><p>"They have alibis." He said. "They were appearing at a live interview during the attack. My guess, some sort of stand-in. Body double, changeling...there's lots of possibilities."</p><p>“Not unexpected after the display of their escape. So, that’s your old skating partner.” The man said. “And why is he attacking you now?”</p><p>“Little Azusa doesn’t know…”</p><p>The woman held out a hand and cleared her throat. “Can you speak age-appropriately, please?”</p><p>“Aunt…” Ryouga started to say until the hand was directed toward him.</p><p>“I want her focused on how serious this is, Ryouga.”</p><p>“Right Auntie.”</p><p>“So, again.”</p><p>“…I…don’t know.” Azusa said. “He said, I cost him the Olympics? But we split a long time before the Olympics were near.”</p><p>“Why’d you end your partnership?”</p><p>Azusa flushed and looked around nervously.</p>
<hr/><p>“Ohhh, that scarf is so cute!” Azusa said, reaching out to snag the scarf from the table. A hand slapped down on the table and she looked up to see Mikado’s glowering face. He started smiling again and handed the scarf over to the young woman sitting at the table.</p><p>“I apologize for my companion.” He said. “She is a bit touched, you see. Perhaps you should hold that where she cannot see it.”</p><p>“Oh…umm, thank you for the warning.” The young woman was blushing as Mikado leaned in closer to her, holding the scarf out with an offering hand.</p><p>“Perhaps you would appreciate if I gave you the privilege of ki –“</p><p>“Mikkie. Little Azusa want her little Ophelia!” Azusa reached out to swat him on the head.</p><p>“Would you stop acting like a child?” He demanded angrily. “I am busy here!”</p><p>“You’re always ‘busy’ with girls, Mikkie! But you take my things from me all the time!”</p><p>The girl mean-while quietly excused herself and started hurrying away to Mikado’s annoyance. She’d been starting to leave when he first started shouting, but it was when Azusa had accused him of always being busy that he rounded on her.</p><p>“They’re not you’re things, you crazy little bitch. You’re a fucking kleptomaniac. Do you know what that means? It means you’re a thief and you can’t not be a thief! But you wouldn’t know that because your broken head can’t comprehend things like what belongs to who!”</p><p>Azusa’s face scrunched up and she lashed out to slap him. “If Mikkie hate Little Azusa so much, she just leave then!”</p><p>“Oh, good luck with that. Who could ever tolerate you? You’re not going to get anywhere without me, because I’m the only fucking person who cares less about other people than you do.”</p><p>Azusa felt the tears welling up in her eyes and turned about to rush out of the area as several people stood, watching and holding out their cell phones.</p>
<hr/><p>Oreldo looked toward his wife and then pulled out his phone and started typing on it.</p><p>“Found it.” </p><p>He set the phone out to play the video of the confrontation for the people watching.</p><p>“While you are certainly not blameless in that confrontation, I don’t see how he can say you cost him the Olympics.”</p><p>“I’d heard he was having troubles with lawsuits and finding a partner.” Ryouga said. “But I’d stopped paying too much attention to Rhythmic Gymnastics and Figure Skating Martial Arts by then.”</p><p>“Ahh, so he’s the sort that blames his own problems on other people.” Suzuka noted. “At least Ryouga grew out of that finally.”</p><p>“What, I never was like that.”</p><p>“And the reason I know the name Saotome Ranma is…”</p><p>“Oh, that’s how we met.” Akari said. “He called out Ranma at a tournament.”</p><p>“We saw that.” Oreldo said. “It was linked on the family discord something like five times.”</p><p>Ryouga shrank into himself.</p><p>“But you indeed were never that bad.” Suzuka turned to look at Azusa. “So, what do you want to do now.”</p><p>Azusa held silent and looked to either side of her. “I don’t want to get anybody hurt.”</p><p>“It’s not you hurting people.” Akari protested. “It’s him.”</p><p>“But…”</p><p>“I promised to be your partner. Granted, I had no idea what I was saying at the time. But I’m not just going to give up and let him scare me out of it.”</p><p>She reached out to hold Azusa’s hand.</p><p>“I’m not going to let him get away with this.” Ryouga placed a hand on her shoulder, he hesitated to say anything else as she reached up to touch his hand and then nodded.</p><p>“I will fight. Mikkie doesn’t tell Little Azusa what she does.”</p><p>“All right then. We have to address something.”</p><p>“What’s that?” Akari asked.</p><p>“My curse.” Ryouga said.</p><p>“Among other things. Do you any of you have anything that needs addressing?”</p><p>“I have classes.” Akari said. “But winter break is coming up. Why? Oh…oh…it’s more training isn’t it. You’re going to make me do more training.”</p><p>Oreldo smiled and nodded. "It's more training."</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>So, Sanzenin clearly has some level of popularity in the original manga and anime...by which I mean there's an entire stadium half-filled with girls cheering him on. But his mask is very frail. Both Ranma and Azusa can easily make him break it, in fact, anybody calling him on his bullshit has a tendency to send him into a screaming fit. So his reputation would definitely not last in a world with smart phones and social media. Likewise, this is why Azusa has had such trouble as well. Because she was a fairly selfish person similar to what she is in the anime until she went years with absolutely nobody wanting anything to do with her. The difference between her and Sanzenin is that she started to think "maybe it's my fault" and started to make herself better...though still at the point she came into the story here she had a long way to go.</p><p>Now, onto a bit of narrative need. For the Amazons to become a problem, they have to lose on their initial appearance, because that's what brings out the big guns to deal with matters. If Ranma lost to Afu T'axie, then the Amazons would remain a background element...eventually they would show up to check on Xian Pu, but that might have been a while and would be focused on her. This focuses some attention on Ranma instead. By contrast, to keep Sanzenin a narrative problem, he has to win here. Now, he's good enough a threat to be dangerous to Azusa and Akari together, but if Sanzenin tried to fight Ryouga fair, it would be like a medieval knight tilting at an M1 Abrams. Fortunately, Ryouga has an issue that makes it easy to get things down to just Akari and Azusa versus Sanzenin and Suginomiya (note to self, use that to refer to her and you can have As vs Ss...also, means fewer A names to track). In any case, this is a matter of introducing the danger here so that the characters can be prepared for that later.</p><p>References (which will be tracked in the twitter thread referenced in the fic notes under these notes) Oreldo is Sub-Lt Oreldo from Pumpkin Scissors (he's given no first name, so I took his last name as his first name here...and I just assume he married into the Kanbara name.) Suzuka is Twilight Suzuka from Outlaw Star. Edward is a reference to Full Metal Alchemist. Suruga is a reference to Kanbaru Sugura from Bakemonogatari because a friend of mine suggested that she'd like to see her appear (I almost made her the mother, but she's noted as a lesbian, so, nope, not married to a guy). Ian is Ian Horner from Loading Ready Run, a variety Twitch Stream/YouTube channel. (They do gaming news, gaming streams, sketch comedy, sitcoms, and a very well-known annual charity stream called Desert Bus for Hope). I basically put the bit with Ian doing his Play It Forward of Shenmue 3 as a breather after the fight.  I'm going to say Suruga is Half-Hibiki, but Edward is Suzuka's and Oreldo's kid. There were others, but decided to stop just dropping names here. Regarding Ellie's hair, the game she's from has the characters partnered with spirits that becoming sentient magic weapons and thus also causes changes in the character appearances. Side note, this makes a layered reference since the spirit of Ellie's bow is a character from Fire Emblem. I also referenced the movie Cutting Edge.</p><p>I'm not going to say much, but I have a (somewhat distant) view of where I plan to wrap this fic up. I plan to do so with room to come back to it though and it's going to require a lot of set-up. I've got decent dangers set up against most of the characters, still have to set up Ukyou and Konatsu with something. </p><p>Oh...on Suginomiya Asuka the White Lily, once upon a time I thought Asuka was a Rhythmic Gymnastics martial artist like Kodachi. Turns out, nope, she just uses traps. So she's even less honorable than canon Kodachi because at least Kodachi puts herself in the fight. The White Lily stays as far away from the fight as she can. So, that's why her participation here was mostly being a troll grenadier. I've decided it's reasonable for her to be good at figure skating given her attitude, but she's still not a martial artist. The bit about the stampede of cows....she actually does that in the manga...that's one of the ways she knocks out Ranma in canon. To be honest...without the distraction of getting Ryouga out of the water....Akari and Azusa didn't have 0% chance of winning, but they weren't well prepared for a pair of sadists with grenades.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0018"><h2>18. Phone Calls and Letters</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Ukyou's parents make a surprise visit. Content Warning, see first notes.</p>
          </blockquote><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>All right. I've been drifting into more drama and this chapter is a bit heavy in that regard. So I'm putting a warning on head and I marked off the heaviest scene with "*************************".</p><p>Spoiler content warning follows here:</p><p>*<br/>*<br/>*<br/>*</p><p>For a summary. Ukyou has a personal confrontation with their parents, most specifically their father. The conflict between them is rooted in misunderstanding, but it does involve Ukyou and Konatsu talking about a past experience when they were outed and thinking Ukyou's father was involved. Sorry if that's a spoiler, but I feel it deserves a content warning.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Well, you’re not set up for okonomiyaki in this kitchen.”</p><p>The pale woman with the slitted eyes nodded. “We’re mostly set up for bar food and drinks. ”</p><p>“If you have room, we could bring in the portable grills.”</p><p>Ukyou turned to look at Carmilla as she spoke. </p><p>“Grills, plural?” Carmilla asked.</p><p>Konatsu explained as Ukyou stepped out into the main area to judge the space. “Because of cross contamination. One grill gets used and immediately cleaned so we can serve people with diet issues. And I get the feeling a lot of your clientele have issues with garlic or other things.”</p><p>The ninja pointed toward the sign talking about a “blood list” next to the more typical mention of a wine list. Carmilla looked over and then smiled, turning back to face them. </p><p>“Ah, yes, wouldn’t want </p><p>“The clean grill is a bit smaller. Are you going to run live music the same nights we’re here? Because if not, the stage should be good to set up on.”</p><p>“Your grills are for cooking outside, right? What does it burn?”</p><p>“I went to electric a year or two after Natsu-chan started traveling with me. Mostly ‘cause we started doing venues indoors. Conventions, tournaments and things. The stage is a big step up and down though.”</p><p>“We have ramps for getting gear up and stairs for open mic night. So that’s not an issue and if we don’t have to worry about fumes then I don’t see a problem with the portable grills.” </p><p>“You got any concerns, Konatsu?”</p><p>“Would you prefer we use paper plates or proper dishes?”</p>
<hr/><p>“Takchan, come on out here, you promised that you would come on this visit with me.” </p><p>The speaker was a slender woman with greying hair cut a bit shorter than shoulder length. There were some faint crow’s feet about her eyes and laugh lines around her mouth and she kept her right arm mostly still while the left was rather animate. She was addressing a tall man with a full, black beard and broad shoulders. He huffed a bit more heavily than he really needed to.</p><p>“I think I should stay here and make sure everything runs smoothly. You know we have some new employees at the restaurant, Kaoru.”</p><p>She rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Come on now, Takeru, they are looking forward to seeing you.”</p><p>He frowned and crossed his arms. “The last time we were in the same room, the neighbors thought it was an earthquake. And the last time you told we were coming for a visit she went on vacation before we got there.”</p><p>“That was years ago, Takchan. Stop being stubborn. And the manager you hired can handle the restaurant for a couple of days. Now, let’s hurry up or we won’t get into Tokyo at a reasonable time.”</p><p>He grumbled and turned back to close the door behind him and lock the door before starting to walk sulkily down the street alongside Kaoru. They walked down the street with their suitcases rolling along behind them as they walked to the nearest train stop and went up the stairs to wait for the local train to arrive and bring them to the Shinkansen station in the center of Osaka. </p><p>Fifteen minutes later, the train stopped at the Kyoto station to let in more passengers.</p><p>“You just go and sit, we’ll put the luggage up.”</p><p>“I can handle my bag just fine.”</p><p>“Darling, go sit-down.”</p><p>A short redhead with her arm in a sling and sporting a black eye stalked up the aisle. She paused as she was about to pass them and looked to the side with a puzzled and concerned look on her face.</p><p>“Hey, uh, sorry…but do I know you?”</p><p>Takeru looked her up and down as Kaoru leaned around to look at her. The young woman’s athleticism was obvious and the injuries she was sporting were of a sort that they’d seen before a few times. There was something about her stance and way of speaking that was familiar, but that could be anything.</p><p>“Can’t place you, nope.”</p><p>“Huh, that’s weird.”</p><p>The woman started to slip into the seats ahead of them and Kaoru reached out and cleared her voice. </p><p>“But I would say, Miss, you should listen to your friends about aggravating your injuries.” She pointed toward her right shoulder. “My days of kendo were long over before I was finished with college.”</p><p>“Oh, I can work fine with one-hand and I can channel chi a bit.”</p><p>“Chi can be overworked too.” Takeru noted.</p><p>“Wait the couple of days for your chi to heal your body rather than overburden both.”</p><p>“I’ve heard that story somewhere before.” The redhead said.</p><p>“It’s a common enough story among martial artists and mystics.”</p><p>“No, I’m sure I’ve heard this…”</p><p>A slender woman with an off-center ponytail slipped into the row of seats with the redhead and gently hugged her before slipping around into the window seat. “Please listen to good advice, darling.”</p><p>“You can afford to do nothing but study for a few days.” A taller woman with short blue-black hair said also giving the redhead a cautious hug.</p><p>Takeru cleared his throat. “You have severe injuries?”</p><p>“Nah, they’re nothing much.”</p><p>“There’s the gash in your side from that psycho’s spear hand and the second round. I’m still amazed that the bruised ribs she gave you didn’t crack later in the tournament.” Another voice said, and they turned to see a blue-haired young woman with light scaling visible where her wrist came out of her jacket, and a bit of gills could be seen under her jacket collar. “Then the dislocation and concussion from that suplex in your last fight.”</p><p>“That’s not nothing.” Takeru said. “So, stop being selfish and worrying people because this is a public transport and you’re being a jackass by annoying the other passengers with your whining.”</p><p>“Fine, whatever, I’ll read a book or something.”</p><p>She sat down in the middle seat with accompanying looks of exasperation and gratitude from the other two women as they sat down. The blue-haired ningyo moved into the row behind Takeru and Kaoru, drawing their eye there to see a wolf-eared woman sitting behind them and a pale woman sitting against the train’s bulkhead. She was wearing sunglasses but met their look briefly with a wave while putting earbuds in and then burying herself under a blanket.</p><p>Kaoru and Takeru shrugged it off and turned around and settle back in as the train started up again.</p>
<hr/><p>Ukyou was sitting in the small room full of chairs with a relaxing beige wall-color and had large flat-screen TV currently tuned to a news show. There were the typical posters associated with health that one could find in a doctor’s office. These posters were mostly focused on women’s health though some of them were a bit unusual. </p><p>They looked up and eyed a poster that listed various “common” curses or other supernatural transformations and whether or not it did have an effect on a woman’s health. It was alarming how many of the entries had added on arrows that looked like they had been made from sticky notes that were pointing from different entries to the next poster, which was about recognizing the signs of love potions and similar effects. </p><p>Sitting across from them was a middle-aged mother with a teenager who had buried her face into a book titled “So you want to be a wizard” trying to hide her face from everybody else. The mother was speaking to a woman with subtly glowing eyes and several tattoos that looked like they were inked with orihalcum. There was a man in the corner leaning back against the wall and reading something on his phone.</p><p>The chef leaned back pulled their own phone out and scrolled through aimlessly before putting it back in their pocket and scanning the room again. They leaned forward and pressed forward into their knees and was about to cycle back to the phone again when the door opened and Konatsu walked out along with the doctor. Ukyou was on their feet a moment later and walking over.</p><p>“Have a good day, Ms Kuonji and tell Ranma thank for the continued referrals. It’s transformed my practice.”</p><p>“I’ll tell them that. Thank you.”</p><p>The doctor and turned toward the waiting room. “Mr. Fujimora?”</p><p>The man in the corner stood up to walk over as Ukyou and Konatsu started walking out of the office. Konatsu waited for them to be out on the street before talking.</p><p>“She says everything looks perfectly normal.” There was measurable relief in her voice. </p><p>“Right, so we’ve done business and handled an errand, now time to head home relax the rest of today and tomorrow. Back to the salt-mines on Thursday.”</p><p>“So, Owl’s Castle, Renegade Ninja?”</p><p>“We have a day and a half, we can watch all of them.”</p><p>“And tomorrow will be completely to us then? Leave business alone for a day?”</p><p>“I promise, Natsuchan, today and tomorrow is going to be just you, me, and….”</p><p>They turned the corner coming in sight of their restaurant and saw a pair of older people standing outside. A tall bearded man was knocking on the door and the woman behind him was reaching into her pocket and taking out her phone.</p><p>“…Ma? Pa?”</p><p>“Oh, there you are, Ucchan. Takchan, there’s our baby.”</p><p>The large bearded man turned toward them and crossed his arms. “You’re leaving the restaurant closed for two days? Didn’t I teach you better than that?”</p><p>Ukyou grimaced and put their palm into their while approaching the tall man, voice rising. “I have things I need to do that mean being out of the restaurant, jackass.”</p><p>“That’s why you hire other cooks! I could…”</p><p>“I am not a fucking franchise! Pa! This is my restaurant!”</p><p>“Then treat it like a restaurant instead of food cart!”</p><p>“At least I never lost any of my food carts to a con artist!”</p><p>Kaoru sighed and walked over toward where Konatsu had slumped and sighed. “Hello there, Konatsu, I’m guessing this was a poorly timed surprise.”</p><p>“Just a little bit, mother-in-law. Would you like to come in?”</p><p>They walked past where Ukyou and their father were shouting at each other and Konatsu walked up to the door and unlocked it to let her in.</p><p>“You look…different.”</p><p>“Oh, we found a reliable sort of magic. Everything’s now in the right place.”</p><p>“Oh congratulations!” She paused for a moment. “Are you…”</p><p>“We’re still planning on a family, mother-in-law. There’s a lot more options that way than there were for me.”</p><p>The two women walked into the restaurant and Kaoru looked around, nodding. “This is a very beautiful restaurant. Much better than the last restaurant you had.”</p><p>“I suppose it is.” Konatsu’s smile did not waver and Kaoru looked her over carefully.</p><p>“Whatever happened to your last restaurant? You’ve both been…vague on that.”</p><p>“There were problems…”</p><p>“And any new insights on what those problems were?”</p><p>The door slammed open and Ukyou stalked in ahead of their father before turning toward her mother. “Ma? What are you doing here?”</p><p>“Can’t a mother visit her children and children-in-law?”</p><p>“Could maybe you have called ahead?”</p><p>“In all fairness, dear. Last time she did that we suddenly went on holiday to Miyagi-ken.”</p><p>“Well…maybe that was a hint.”</p><p>Kaoru reached up to pat Ukyou’s cheek and then sat down at the bar.</p><p>Takeru meanwhile crossed his arms. “Are you going to make dinner, or do I have to?”</p><p>“If you touch my grills, Pa. I…I…” Ukyou glanced over toward their mother and gritted their teeth before pushing upstairs toward the living part of the building. “Don’t touch my grills. Upstairs. I’m ordering pizza!”</p><p>Konatsu winced at the harshly declared “pizza.”</p><p>“Pizza?” Takeru protested in a growling tone as he followed the other chef up the stairs. “You’re ordering pizza?”</p><p>“So, what plans did I just interrupt?”</p><p>“Ninja movies, ice cream…probably shibari tomorrow. Thank you for the book by the way, mother-in-law.”</p><p>“Not at all dear. Do you have a favorite chapter yet?”</p><p>*************************</p>
<hr/><p>The next morning saw the small family sitting around the table staring at each other over breakfast. Kaoru set her chopsticks down and took a breath.</p><p>“So, I notice the silence this morning. Have you run out of petty things to argue about?”</p><p>Ukyou looked at her and then matched a glare with their father.</p><p>“Good. Now…shall we pretend there’s nothing else and have a visit? Or shall we do something painful and try to settle this now?”</p><p>Konatsu shuffled uncomfortably and looked toward Ukyou. “Ukyou? Maybe we should think about this.”</p><p>“Are we supposed to pretend that he doesn’t know what he did?”</p><p>“What I did?! I didn’t do anything to you! Do you know how embarrassing it is to learn about…” he gestured toward Ukyou and Konatsu “…this, not from you but from an acquaintance who wanted to gossip about meeting my kid’s wife and business?”</p><p>“How the fuck is that a surprise!? Were you paying attention at all when I was growing up?”</p><p>“What does that have anything to do with the matter! You completely fucking cut us out!”</p><p>“And that’s a perfectly good excuse to just out me, out us then? Huh?”</p><p>Takeru stood back.</p><p>“What are you talking about?”</p><p>The younger chef stood up and stomped back to the master bedroom. There was a sound of rummaging for a few minutes followed by the slamming of a drawer and Ukyou coming back into the room to slam a piece of paper down on the table.</p><p>“That!” Ukyou snapped. “That’s what I’m talking about.”</p><p>Konatsu took a deep breath and tensed her shoulders, hardening her expression ever so slightly. She looked toward her husband and reached forward to pick the letter up and started reading it. Her face blanched almost immediately but she kept reading, wincing at several more points and shifting uncomfortably in her seat.</p><p>“Takeru, you should read this.”</p><p>Hesitantly, he took the letter and started reading it. “’You should know how much shame you bring to your father’s name…’ What is this bullshit?” He looked up to see Ukyou’s furious face and then looked down to continue reading. “I never told anybody any of this crap!”</p><p>“That letter isn’t even signed, Ucchan. Why would you ever think your father, or either of us, would ever act so…indirectly?”</p><p>“We called to talk to you about it.” Konatsu’s voice was cool. “As soon as the phone was picked up, you started yelling at Ukyou about hiding things from you. Treating you like a ‘fucking fool’. You kept yelling at her until I took the phone and hung it up. Then I had to take care of her for the next week.”</p><p>“You’re the one who hung up on me?” Takeru looked from Konatsu poised on choosing a direction to move and back to his child, who stood glaring at him with tears forming in the corner of her eyes.</p><p>“If I had been less worried about my spouse, I would have done something a bit more violent than that.”</p><p>“Our windows got egged or just fucking broken. Supplies started showing up contaminated! Someone called the health department and then dumped rats and roaches in the back room. He had to pay an investigator to prove it was sabotage! That’s what fucking happened to the Shinjuku restaurant! Somebody couldn’t fucking shut up!”</p><p>“That’s…that’s not what I was angry about. I never talked to anybody about that.”</p><p>“Then what the fuck were you yelling at me about?!”</p><p>Takeru looked at Ukyou and then gestured toward Konatsu. “You got married! Before we even met your wife! Why the fuck wouldn’t I be pissed.”</p><p>Ukyou tumbled down at the table and clutched their knees to avoid falling on their back. Konatsu shifted next to them and wrapped an arm around the chef’s shoulders.</p><p>“The marriage was for legal reasons. It was just a court marriage. We were going to have a ceremony later when we could afford it on our own bill.”</p><p>“You were mad about the marriage.” Ukyou whispered.</p><p>“You thought I’d support this crap?”</p><p>“After the phone call…”</p><p>Kaoru took a deep breath and looked toward her husband. “You let your temper get the better of you and you went too far. I told you as much at the time.”</p><p>The elder Kuonji bundled his shoulders together. “I have always been proud of you. That’s why it hurt so much to be…left out…like I didn’t matter. But…this is all my fault.” He stood up and kneeled on the floor looking toward Ukyou before bowing to the floor towards them. “I’m…I’m sorry.”</p><p>“It’s as much my fault. I should have spoken up much earlier than this.” Kaoru kneeled down next to her husband. “I’m sorry.”</p><p>“Shit. Shit.” Ukyou stood up, shaking their head and walked to the stairs heading down. “I gotta go clear my head.”</p><p>Konatsu stood up and followed, giving a look toward her in-laws and bow stiffly. “We’ll be back later.”</p>
<hr/><p>*************************</p><p>Ukyou stopped about half-way over the bridge looking down on the creek and gripped the railing tightly, just looking down into the water. Konatsu came up to them and cautiously placed one hand on the chef’s shoulder and the other on one of their wrists.</p><p>“I’m just…” Ukyou said. “Why didn’t I realize he wasn’t…”</p><p>“He didn’t give you much chance or explanation.”</p><p>“I mean, we always yell at each other.” Ukyou said. “I should have known better…But I didn’t.”</p><p>“You remember when you helped me stand up to my step-family?”</p><p>“You hated your step-family.”</p><p>“I didn’t realize that dear.”</p><p>“You tried to kill them five times in the first week I met you.”</p><p>“But I also did everything they told me to do. I didn’t really know what I was feeling. And you helped me work around that doubt.”</p><p>“You think we had dou…” Ukyou sighed and tossed a spatula out over the water, skipping into off the surface so that it sunk into a tree at the edge of their sight. “Fuck, I know we had doubts, or we never would have been in this situation.”</p><p>“You were arguing to avoid talking about what you were really angry about.”</p><p>Ukyou nodded and rolled their head around. “So, before we were arguing to avoid asking the question. Damn it, I’m a jackass. If I even start to act like this with our kids, hit me with something.”</p><p>“I promise to do exactly that, my love. Shall we head back to the restaurant, or do you need more time?” Konatsu slipped an arm around Ukyou’s as they started walking again.</p><p>“Let’s stay out for a little bit more.”</p><p>“Some time just for us.”</p>
<hr/><p>Kaoru and Takeru tensed as they heard the door open before and the sound of footsteps crossing the dining area below and then heading up the stairs. Ukyou’s face turned toward them as they topped the stairwell with Konatsu alongside. </p><p>“Ma, Pa…I should have trusted you…I…”</p><p>Ukyou moved to kneel down in front of them but paused as Takeru held his hand out. “The fault here is not equal, the debt was too you.”</p><p>The younger chef grimaced, and their shoulders started to tense up, but then they forcibly stopped themselves and took a deep breath. “All right then. Where do we go from here?”</p><p>“Perhaps, we could chat just…share the news of the past…two years.”</p><p>“You know most of that already, we haven’t been totally out of contact.” </p><p>“But we have been a bit terse in exchanges, dear.”</p><p>“Okay, but that’s a lot of time. Where do we start.”</p><p>“How about with the marriage.” Ukyou’s father said. “What do you mean it was for legal reasons?”</p><p>“Well…” Ukyou looked toward Konatsu.</p><p>“I…didn’t have a surname at the time.”</p><p>“How does someone not have a surname in this day and age?” Kaoru asked. </p><p>“Well, there’s a reason you’ll never see my in-laws. My step-family are horrid. And at the time we didn’t know my real parents’ family name.”</p><p>“Oh, I see. I’m guessing you’ve learned it since then.”</p><p>“Yes, it was Makimachi.”</p><p>Kaoru straightened and then shared a look with Takeru before smiling. </p><p>“What’s so funny?” Ukyou asked cautiously. </p><p>“Later I’ll have to tell you some stories about the ancestor I’m named after, Ukyou.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Okay....so, there's been a couple of reasons that I stalled out after last chapter. And part of that was trying to figure out who to talk about next. This was a bit hard especially because these last few story arcs have been giving some drama. Ranma's is a bit familiar and focused on the Joketsuzoku so even though that character is very much more bigoted than the culture is in the manga, it's still a bit familiar. The bit with Azusa, Ryouga and Akari had some level of personal hooks in it that I'm still sort of not sure about on myself. This one? It's probably coming from a mix of stories I've heard from friends and old stories about family drama from my parents' generation especially a nearly life-long grudge my aunt held against my mother that our family wasn't really aware of the reasons behind until after her death and one of our cousins explained things.</p><p>My tendency to bleed on my stories happened again here. As a friend noted, I kind of chickened out on wrapping it up in the same chapter I introduced it. Realistically, I'd think the appearance of everything being better is mostly shock...that's not something that's just going to disappear. If for no other reason than it happened once, it can happen again. But also it took me over a week to even write this, and I didn't want to get stalled out on getting things written. Ukyou and Konatsu will probably be the focus of the next chapter....I've been doing things two chapters to a focus...so I'll see what comes up there.</p><p>There seems to be a dichotomy of the interaction between Konatsu and Kaoru and the underlying anger that Konatsu and Ukyou both have toward Takeru, but trust me when I say that sort of weirdness happens in families. And yes, I've resolved this conflict really quick and easy because it's not fun for me to let it linger. I painted myself into the corner of it existing, but at least I can resolve it. But, there is still the fact that someone outed Ukyou and Konatsu and I'm going to let on that that person probably tried to arrange it so that Takeru learned about the marriage. I almost went into that at the end here, but decided I didn't want to darken the ending here.</p><p>And yes, I'm implying Ukyou is descended from Kaoru and Kenshin from Ruruoni Kenshin while Konatsu is descended from Aoshi and Misao.</p><p>As a side-note, it is apparent that a lot of Ukyou's fighting style and gear is very similar to the ways ninjitsu is commonly depicted in manga. Further, both Iga and Koga ninja were native to the Kansai region. With the ever so exhaustive research source of wikipedia (seriously don't consider this deep research), the last documented Iga activity was in the 19th century and the last Koga practitioner died while refusing to pass on his art sometime in the 60s or 70s. It is feasible that the Kuonji martial arts okonomiyaki arts descend from either or both groups...or some other ninja group.</p><p>I was originally going to do another reference with Ranma and crew in the train, but it felt a bit forced.</p><p>Also, Kansai dialect is often localized as sort of southern/hick speech in English. Which feels a little odd because the Kansai dialect would have been the dialect of the original seat of power in Kyoto....so it feels more like how Americans feel British accents are "charming" and/or "quaint"...but eh... with Ukyou using a lot of "sugar" and "jackass" and such, it felt like "Ma" and "Pa" fit.</p><p>Owl's Castle and Renegade Ninja are real movies...Renegade Ninja is about Yukimura Sanada's 12 Braves and is a bad movie from 1979 I owned the VHS of and watched a lot...hence nostalgia. Owl's Castle I have on digital CD somewhere having picked it up in Korea from a street stall...which means there's a high chance it was bootleg...anyway... it deals with an attempt to assassinate Toyotomi Hideyoshi (so about a generation earlier in history) and was written in 1999.</p><p>"So You Want to Be a Wizard" is the first book in a series that predates Harry Potter by a lot...they are good books, but they will make you cry. It, a couple of kids find a book titled that and it turns out to be an actual spellbook that found them.</p>
        </blockquote><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I am trying to get back into the habit of writing and doing so by writing something just for fun. </p><p>Please don't ask about some of my older fanfictions. There are some I want to go back to but it's hard to get back into the head of myself 10 to 15 years ago.</p><p>Please don't ask about my original stuff. I'm trying to work on it.</p><p>Life has been life and that should be enough explanations.</p><p>As a note, this will be a poly-ship but my personal joy is character conversation and interaction rather than sexy times so I will likely just skip past most lemon scenes. I'm in the mood for light-hearted and wish fulfillment. Though I have hit some dark points in this story and some feels. </p><p>Okay, I probably missed one or two, but references kept here: https://twitter.com/Thrythlind/status/1288654439491010562?s=20<br/>I'll try to keep it up from here. Also, there are some replies I put off the normal thread in order to link people and signal boost them without making them get a notification for every single tweet in the thread following.</p><p>Similarly a thread of images I like from each chapter: https://twitter.com/Thrythlind/status/1282370476552183811?s=20</p></blockquote><div class="children module" id="children">
  <b class="heading">Works inspired by this one:</b>
  <ul>
    <li>
        <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25491487">Kuuketsu</a> by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Kellith/pseuds/The_Kellith">The_Kellith</a>
    </li>
    <li>
        <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25536622">Late Start: Covenant</a> by <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thrythlind/pseuds/Thrythlind">Thrythlind</a>
    </li>
  </ul>
</div></div></div>
</body>
</html>